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.