Steady as he goes for cautious Cooney

As difficult as it is to believe for such an organisation integral to Irish society, the role of the GAA president remains undefined. Director general Páraic Duffy is widely regarded as the most powerful administrator in Irish sport yet the Uachtarán is viewed by GAA members as the embodiment of the association.

In his final Congress as president in the Heritage Hotel, Killenard this weekend, Christy Cooney will call the shots in terms of what’s in and what’s out of order.

Tomorrow evening, the curtain will fall on his three years in which he, like a number of others before him, took advantage of the blurred lines that surrounded his responsibilities to exert executive power.

It was Cooney who sealed the agreement to officially recognise the Gaelic Players’ Association last year although the spade work had been done by Nickey Brennan and claims remain Cooney could have driven a harder bargain with the players’ body.

However, he can also take some credit for how well the disciplinary system has worked since 2009, undoubtedly helped by the competent chairman Seamus Woods, Liam Keane and Simon Moroney, whom both he and Duffy put in charge.

As much as the quantity of stages in the process have been often criticised, bar Monaghan’s recent case the disciplinary chiefs have had a fine record under Cooney.

Much in keeping with Cooney’s own views, the payments to managers issue will shortly see an audit board established to ensure inter-county managers aren’t remunerated illegally.

But Duffy’s thought-provoking discussion paper deserved more consideration from county boards and should have been released a lot earlier than it was. That delay reflected poorly on the association but not nearly as much as the hypocritical endorsement by some county boards for the amateur status of managers to be enshrined.

While Duffy wasn’t in a position to share his views, Cooney never made any secret of his opposition to outside managers. Although his own club Youghal have one in former Waterford hurler and Newtown/Ballydurn man Peter Queally, a garda stationed in the town.

A more decisive president may have broadened the debate to the club scene where the problem is at its worst. After delivering that now infamous line at Congress last year when describing the issue as “a cancer running through our organisation”, certainly more action could have been expected.

In a representative capacity, he capably handled the historic visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Croke Park last year. The advent of Hawk-Eye and the establishment of a standing playing rules committee could be two commendable entries in his ledger and ones ultimately realised by his successor Liam O’Neill.

However, the outstanding issue of referees’ expenses is not something O’Neill will be thankful for.

Cooney, of course, wasn’t helped by the FÁS debacle that preceded his presidency. Although he wasn’timplicated, his €150,000 FÁS annual salary, which was paid by the GAA for his three years in office, meant his words and actions were more robustly interrogated.

Under him, the Ireland International Rules team were treated to a level of preparation they were previously unaccustomed to. The luxurious five-star resorts Adare Manor and Carton House were used as training camps while he and the team flew business class to Australia last year (it’s understood hurling championship associate sponsors Etihad Airways footed most but not all of the bill).

In a time when Ireland was going through its worst economic crisis and volunteer money was being used, the optics weren’t exactly generous to him.

The Ag Éisteacht programme he developed and took part in alongside Duffy in the early part of his presidency was an attempt for Croke Park to re-engage with the grassroots, but it was hardly innovative.

While his attempt, in conjunction with RTÉ, to have the two All Stars teams named exclusively on the night of the ceremony failed when the print journalists, who make up a large proportion of the selection committees, stood their ground.

Despite his opposition to the revival of the Interprovincial Series, it returned this year. He pointed to the poor crowd numbers to prove his point that its future was questionable.

However, he experienced an embarrassing moment when, standing alongside victorious Ulster football captain Darren Hughes in Armagh in February, the Monaghan man made a jibe about Cooney’s stance.

The fall-out following the restructuring of the hurling league late last year didn’t look good either, as Duffy pointed out in his annual report last month. There had been hints of radical progression from Cooney. At Congress last year, he gave a 62-minute speech which mentioned provincial reshaping. If it ever comes to pass he’ll be remembered as the man who first broached the subject but for the moment his words appear as mere window dressing.

Ironically, after the extraordinary length of his rhetoric, there was a restless feeling towards the end of an overrun Congress and it may have contributed to last motion on the Clár — the reintroduction of replays in all championship games — being passed.

Central Council had to clear it up and another motion on it will be voted on tomorrow.

Cooney’s legacy? As the man said himself last month, it’s up to others to decide that. For such a conservative president, it’s hardly surprising that little has changed since 2009. The championship structures, as much as they are in dire need of being transformed, remain the same.

The league systems have been altered but almost every single president has overseen some tinkering to them, and it’s this writer’s opinion that the integrity of the top-flight football and hurling competitions has been diminished by the current structures.

Overall, with Duffy as his able co-captain, he can claim to have steadily manned the bridge. But when the association needed acceleration, it wasn’t enough.