GAA pace of change is quicker than you think

IT was a long drive home from Congress on Saturday, one that offered more than enough time to wonder idly about what the soundtrack would be for the GAA’s annual think-tank if it had been covered live on TV.

No doubt, a lot of suggestions would veer towards something like Therapy’s ‘Going Nowhere’ or maybe even Green Day’s ‘Pulling Teeth’ because, let’s face it, Congress has rarely enjoyed the best of press.

Well, having been at a few, I’m tempted to propose a more unlikely entry, namely Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’. Surprised? Well, so was I when the thought first struck.

It was Tipperary’s Con Hogan who sowed the first seeds during the Saturday afternoon session when the sleep-inducing effects of a three-course meal (soup, turkey and ham and apple crumble, since you asked) began to take a toll.

The motion in question was, fittingly enough, one on how Congress went about its business with Dublin proposing that the two-thirds majority needed for motions on rule changes be reduced to three-fifths.

Okay, so it was defeated – cue eyes raised to heaven – but only after Hogan had pointed out that, far from moving with the pace of an Arctic glacier, Congress has in fact been something of a rolling stone this last few years.

And you know what? He’s right.

The opening of Croke Park and Saturday’s official recognition of the GPA would have been hard to envisage at the start of the millennium when they seemed to possess the potential to split the GAA like a modern-day Reformation.

Both motions prompted a handful of impassioned and cautionary addresses from the floor two days ago but they were ultimately passed with a nonchalance that would have astonished the same gathering a generation before.

There will be people reading this who think it plain ludicrous that it should take the guts of a decade for a sporting body to agree once and for all on who should decide how one stadium should be used and when.

It’s a fair point but to think that way is to ignore the reality that is the GAA and how it goes about its business. Congress has been with us this long and it will probably be around that long again.

That it is unwieldy and could do with some pruning is undeniable. That is especially true after a year in which 123 motions were listed on the agenda, although nowhere near that number even made it to a vote.

=IN and around a quarter of those were withdrawn for one reason or another. Dozens more were summarily voted down after little or no discussion and, all too often, after absolutely no debate whatsoever.

Let’s dwell on that for a second. How many hours, days, or weeks went into some of those motions only for all that research, thought and energy to be sucked down the plughole, never to be seen again? Among them were the top-of-the-bill experimental rule proposals concerning the mark, the handpass and the square ball and, as can be seen elsewhere on these pages, Jarlath Burns was not a happy camper afterwards.

The former Armagh captain is a respected voice in GAA circles and would be a good dark horse bet for a shot at the presidency itself some day, but he found himself exasperated by the GAA machine at the weekend.

His suggestion that your average delegate should not be asked to decide on playing rules is one that holds weight but the reality is that the men (and handful of women) in Newcastle faced an unenviable task. Even supporters of the mark agreed that it was a flawed concept as it didn’t offer the option of playing on to the player. The handpass and square ball rules were hardly universally popular either.

These are decisions that are integral to hurling and football and shouldn’t delegates have the benefit of more than a single league campaign to see them in action before agreeing to tinker with the very fabric of our games? Another of Burns’ complaints was the sheer alacrity with which the experimental rules were dealt with on the first evening but even he was complimentary of Christy Cooney’s ability to keep the epic show ticking along.

By 3.30 Saturday afternoon, all 123 motions were done and dusted, the president and director general’s speeches had been delivered and the Congress roadshow had been wrapped for another year.

It had been a long weekend. With Cooney calling for ‘ciúnas’ over and over, and the sun illuminating the pretty town of Newcastle outside, there were times when it felt like being stuck in maths or biology class all over again.

No prizes for guessing the closing credits then.

‘School’s Out’ by Aerosmith got its airing on the way down the M1.