GAA: Seán Moran analyses the last time the GAA tried to shape and second-guess its future.

By the end of this month, the GAA will have embarked on a crucial phase of its history with a blueprint for the future.

The Strategic Review Group, chaired by former association president Peter Quinn, is expected to issue its report on the way forward for the GAA over the coming decades.

Comparisons with a previous exercise, which culminated in a report published nearly exactly 30 years ago, are inevitable.

The report of the McNamee Commission was published on December 1st, 1971. Like the current committee, it was chaired by a former president from Ulster, Padraig McNamee.

The 20 members (including Seamus Duke who died shortly after being co-opted to replace future president Con Murphy whose duties as Cork county secretary forced his withdrawal early in 1971) met on 63 occasions between 1969 and '71.

Its recommendations make interesting reading. Some were implemented and have lost any ground-breaking resonance they might once have had - the decision to accept sponsorship and advertising at Croke Park - and some were quietly forgotten about. But taken together, they represent a snapshot of attitudes and concerns as the GAA headed into what might loosely be termed "the modern age".

There are echoes of current issues to be heard. Hurling was as restricted in its operation then as now. There has been some movement at inter-county level since the years under consideration, but, with the exception of Derry, the senior game hasn't spread at a serious level to a single county that hadn't been in a provincial final within the period reviewed by the Commission: 1952-70.

Radical proposals then included the appointment of a full-time national hurling officer, the reduction of the game to 13-a-side, the abolition of the 21-yard free and the introduction of an open-draw All-Ireland (although the Munster and Leinster championships were to be retained).

A great deal of optimism was invested in the potential of Coiste Iomána, then in its early years, to revive the game and nurture it in every county. The current Scéim Iomána (inaugurated in 2000) is giving the same project another crack, but, informed by the hindsight of its predecessor's ultimate impact, who'd give such optimism a contemporary spin?

Proposals to overhaul football's structures were also put forward. Again, an open-draw All-Ireland was suggested - this time with the provincial championships abolished. Considering that the first change to the football championship in over a century took place only last summer, the Commission's prescience on this issue can be plainly seen.

In some ways, the proposals are still ahead of the times. There was a recommendation that a permanent Rules Revision Committee for football be set up. Less than two years ago, the GAA's annual Congress passed a motion not to change the rules for at least a decade.

Leaks have suggested that a proposal, originally made by Director General Liam Mulvihill in his report to the 2000 Congress, envisaging the amalgamation of some weaker counties for the purpose of inter-county senior championships might make it into the final report but ideas on any other reforms of the GAA's main competitions remain to be seen.

Other areas of the Commission's report show their age a bit more. Attitudes to television coverage were to be entirely disproved by history.

Having surveyed declining attendances at big matches, the report concluded that live broadcasting of All-Ireland semi-finals and provincial finals not be allowed.

The current situation in which matches are broadcast every single weekend of the championship would have been unthinkable - as to be fair it would have been even 10 years ago.

Now the problem is less that there is too much television rather than that there is too little. Big events attract sell-out attendances and big broadcast audiences. It is the lack of a competitor to RTÉ in the bidding process for rights that is likely to have consumed the current review group's deliberations on television.

One of the central issues facing this month's report is that of the GAA's administration. Thirty years ago, it was decided that the then General Secretary should be re-designated the Director General and that a Public Relations Officer should be appointed. At the time, the total staff at Croke Park numbered eight. Even now, with a far larger permanent secretariat, there is an obvious need for a greater number of executive positions and yet the very body - the Management Committee - that was introduced on the Commission's recommendation to improve the GAA's administration, shot down such a proposal.

There has been an indication that a refinement of the role of Central Council - the body that runs the GAA between annual congresses - is on the cards.

A direct link between it and county boards - with county officers rather than delegates making up the council - may be proposed.

The eternal mystery of the Railway Cup even then caused baffled deliberation. Convinced that the formula of inter-provincial competition "is still the right one for St Patrick's Day", the Commission concluded, "what is needed is a fresh approach". Live television was - at the time not unreasonably - assumed to be a factor in the competition's loss of popularity, as the grim epiphanies of the last 30 years weren't available to the members.

The knock-on effect of the Railway Cup on St Patrick's Day would have been to deprive the All-Ireland club finals of what has since become a very successful slot in the calendar - attracting nowadays the sort of attendances that the inter-provincials did in their heyday. Consequently, the Commission's reforms of the club championships are irrelevant, planning as they did for a schedule to finish before Christmas.

Although the administrative proposals of the Commission were accepted, many of its more far-reaching suggestions were not.

The protocol adopted saw the 1972 Congress accept the report in principle and leave it to the new Management Committee to implement the individual reforms. As a result, a number of reforms never saw the light of day.

It's unclear how the Strategic Review Group's report will be dealt with but there's a limit to how far institutional reform can be pushed when those with the authority to approve it may well be asked to surrender the very power they hold.

Commissions for change: Now and then

Principal 2002 challenges:

Financing the maintenance of Croke Park

Reform of inter-county championships

Amateur status

Competition from other sports

Need to maximise broadcasting revenue

Challenge of growing urbanisation

Improving discipline within the games

Administrative overhaul of the association

Optimising the relationship with women's games

Development of commercial income

Principal 1971 recommendations:

Establishment of a Management Committee

The General Secretary to become the Director General

Appointment of a PRO

Appointment of a full-time officer to service the "Hurling Revival"

Sponsorship to be accepted

Advertising to be allowed at all GAA grounds

Hurling to be 13-a-side

Abolition of under-21 competition

Open draw for football, provincial championships to be abolished

Open draw for hurling, provincial championships to be retained