Seán Moran On Gaelic GamesThe top table at Monday's GPA media conference must be a wiser as well as an older lot by this stage. On a few occasions the exasperation mingled with weariness, as phrases referring to the organisation's seven years of existence were thrown out to underline the long-haul nature of dealing with a suspicious GAA.

It was also pointed out that Nickey Brennan, the incoming GAA president whom the players will meet formally on May 2nd, will be the fourth such office-holder with whom the GPA must do business, and they weren't hiding the fact that greater institutional links would make the task of liaison a lot easier.

Chief executive Dessie Farrell and commercial manager Donal O'Neill scratched a collective head before saying they thought they had met formally with GAA director general Liam Mulvihill no more than three times.

Still, the weather has got better with each presidential change. Back around the time of the GPA's inception, then-president Joe McDonagh took offence at what he saw as the fledgling organisation's presumptuousness, a view hardened by the role of McDonagh's friend Noel Lane as chair of the "official" Players Committee.

McDonagh's successor, Seán McCague, accomplished some useful reforms. The chair of his Players' Committee, Jarlath Burns, piloted through much needed improvements in players' mileage rates and general allowances. It was good work, but impossible to be seen as entirely unconnected to GPA campaigning.

Even a scheme to use players in promotional campaigns by companies with whom the GAA had commercial links was the result of some swift arm-twisting within weeks of the GPA announcing a similar deal with a recruitment agency.

This reactive type of policy looked set to change with the arrival Seán Kelly, whose term is soon up and who promised a more sympathetic engagement. The problem has been that Kelly has been unable to bring GAA administration along with him in this.

But the outgoing president has had a sound grasp of the issues involved in this interface. At last year's congress, he pointed out that whereas he wasn't sure if all the players wanted to be represented by the GPA, he was satisfied that they didn't want to be represented by anyone else.

There is a chance Brennan will have a good relationship with the players. Like McCague, he has managed senior county players and should have a sympathetic instinct for doing business with them.

Aside from the publication of a manifesto, there were two other significant signals to emerge Monday. One was the extent to which the GPA is again at pains to distance itself from pay-to-play concerns. The players' objectives were stated succinctly by Farrell: "We're looking for the basic requirements to participate as players within an amateur game."

There were a few passionate interjections about how "sick and tired" the organisation was at being misrepresented on this point, but behind it all the GPA officials must have known they landed themselves in that quandary. No sooner had Croke Park been leased for the rugby and soccer internationals than GPA secretary Kieran McGeeney was quoted in a press release as saying: "Because of the additional revenue guaranteed to Croke Park next year, the GAA is now going to come under further pressure from players to address the remuneration issue, and we urge the GAA to actively support our campaign to secure Government funding via the sports grants scheme."

It's possible that "remuneration" was simply the wrong word in the context, but, regardless, Monday's statements were unequivocal about not relating to pay-for-play, and the six demands focused on broader concerns than just financial.

The second significant element relates to the big contradiction at the heart of the GPA: that of player representation versus commercial agency. This has left the organisation conflicted when some players were signed up by companies manufacturing products in competition with Club Energise, the GPA's main financial backer.

Farrell pointed out that in the absence of any funding from the parent body, in this case the GAA, the GPA had to seek commercial sponsorship.

"This refers back to the point that we're self-sufficient. If we didn't have to secure this sponsorship, that would be different. We want to move from being an association to being more of a union."

For all the casual vilifying of Farrell and his organisation over the years, there are indicators that it might be as well to do business with them now. There were veiled references to the militant voices at last Saturday's egm in Portlaoise, and even allowing that it's a grand native tradition at negotiations to have wild men lurking in the shadows, it would equally be unusual if that weren't the case.

Consequently, the flexing of muscles evident in next weekend's 15-minute stoppage can be seen as a gesture in two directions, so it is to be hoped that no official heavy handedness disturbs the equilibrium of the situation on Sunday.

The GPA showed welcome restraint last weekend and followed that up with a constructive submission on areas of concern to players. Even the organisation's most implacable enemies can't have much argument with the content of the demands, certainly as an agenda for engagement.

In fact it's ridiculous that something like medical supervision at an intercounty match has to form part of a negotiation.

For many within the GAA, the rise of the GPA has been difficult. But the arrival of players as a distinct interest group in the GAA has already taken place. It won't be possible to get that genie back into the bottle.

There is a positive side to the current situation, and that is the presence of Farrell and the GPA. After years of waiting to be taken seriously, they can bring to the table a great deal of expertise in relation to players' issues.

It may be that farther down the road there will inevitably be a collision between the GAA and the players. But let's see if that can be averted, and certainly let's not get there any more quickly than we have to.

smoran@irish-times.ie.