IF you blink this weekend you might miss Congress.

And what would pass you by you might ask? Well, we’re going to find out who our next GAA President will be and we could have serious changes to the month of August. We should also find out whether the GAA are going to meet the newly formed Club Players Association (CPA) head on, or seek to assimilate them through stealth – the GAA’s usual method.

The CPA are seeking official recognition and early on Saturday morning the GAA will have sent its signals out to the Congress floor managers on whether the top table is in favour of their help. If they are welcomed by acclaim into the bosom of the GAA then the stealth process is underway, if their vote of welcome is not clear-cut, then the entertainment could come quicker than we expected.

The presidential election is one that has not captured the imagination of members. Indeed, it has been one of the most low-key elections I can recall. If there is an obvious front runner, no one has identified themselves. Take your pick from Frank Burke (Galway), Robert Frost (Clare), John Horan (Dublin), Martin Skelly (Longford) and Seán Walsh (Kerry). How many will make the first and last ballots? Or as a friend of mine recently asked; who are they?

The answer is, stalwarts of the association, long involved in administration. There are few headlines in that, but there may be votes. The GAA presidency is perhaps more ceremonial than operational these days, it is unlikely Saturday afternoon’s winner is going to change that.

As motions go there are a few eyebrow raisers but it is far too early in the week to know which ones will actually make it on to the ‘clár’.

One that is expected to be voted on is the ambitious ‘Super 8’ – clearly a pet project of Paraic Duffy’s and one he has not been behind the door in promoting. On this occasion I side with the Ard Stiúrthóir’s vision, only wishing there was a hurling equivalent.

Duffy’s call is for two new games to be added to the football championship, at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage, where the last eight would break into two fours and play three games to decide who would go through to semi-finals.

The carrot of those three-game series is that each team will have one away game, one at Croke Park and, most importantly, one at home. There is vision to this plan, but Duffy’s attempts to remove replays and the revenues they bring to provincial councils could see it scuppered.

This initiative would shake up the football championship, but coming as it does in the wake of the CPA being founded on the principle of less county games and more time for the clubs, perhaps its time isn’t here just yet.

Of course this ‘Super 8’ would be even more useful being applied to the hurling championship, but for that we will grow old awaiting the necessary changes.

Had the ‘Super 8’ been in place last summer Clare and Tipperary could have met in Thurles, Kerry could have come to Cusack Park in Ennis, while Galway could have taken on the Banner in Croke Park. On the other side we would have had some blockbusters too. Imagine Dublin and Tyrone in Omagh, in August? Or Mayo and Dublin in McHale Park?

There is much to Duffy’s proposals, I hope they garner the required two-thirds majority and light a fire under late summer, but I wouldn’t be confident.

This weekend’s Action

The super eight are actually in action this weekend as the football league resumes and apart from Mayo and Roscommon’s local derby, the fare on offer in division one doesn’t exactly set the pulses racing.

The dramatic reversals of the favoured outfits we seen last weekend in the hurling would certainly spark renewed interest in the group stages of this competition, but it would be a brave man that goes against Dublin who travel to Ballybofey to take on Donegal, Kerry who welcome Monaghan and Tyrone at home to Ulster rivals Cavan.

In division two the three sides in early trouble, Derry, Down and Cork are all at home, two of them will have to win if they are to make a real stab at survival. The Rebels should be one, but Meath (against Down) and Kildare (against Derry) look like unwelcome visitors.

We probably won’t notice any of these results or those from the other eight games, we’ll be stuck to the wireless, or twitter, for news of Congress.

Hurling

While this weekend is hurling-free on the National League front, there is still a number of important hurling games down for decision. On Friday and Saturday the Fitzgibbon finals will be hosted by NUI Galway, with Mary Immaculate, LIT, Carlow IT and UCC battling it out for what has become a very valuable medal.

How high are the stakes here? Well a week ago I snuck out of the office for an afternoon in Limerick where I watched two quarter finals. It was fine February entertainment as Carlow shocked UL and LIT saw off UCD. The four managers in charge last Wednesday week were DJ Carey, Brian Lohan, Davy Fitzgerald and Nicky English. Could you get any more high-profile than that quartet, with twenty two All-Stars between the four of them?

It’s Mary I versus LIT and Carlow, the neutrals favourites and most impressive of the four teams I saw, against traditional kingpins UCC. As per usual, TG4 are doing the honours.

They are also showing the second All-Ireland club semi-final between Cuala and Slaughtneil on Saturday evening and this game is on in Armagh’s Athletic Grounds, throw-in at 3pm. The Dublin champions are the hottest of favourites but my sources tell me that Slaughtneil will make them battle for the full hour.

Were the Ulster champions to pull off the surprise, the headaches begin for HQ because the Derry club will have reached both senior football and hurling deciders. Should that happen, the St Patrick’s Day doubleheader is off the agenda. My fellow parishioners Ballyea await the winners and a few are travelling home for a week from as far afield as Australia for Paddy’s Day. They’re not coming all this way to see a football match. Cuala will be both the bookies and schedulers favourites.