Two groups, two attitudes.

They're like gunslingers on either side of a canyon.

Since the rise of the GPA seven years ago, today's action has been inevitable. If it never brokered a deal or improved the lot of the player, the mere formation of the group exposed inter-county men willing to embrace ongoing shifts in global sports and society in general.

Predictably, the GAA has been dallying a few paces behind and the chasm between player and governor has been increasing. The simple fact that the GAA has yet to even recognise the GPA is enough to ascertain that these two bodies are operating on different planets. It is shabby and miserly that Croke Park has ignored the obvious need for an independent player's body.

Perhaps it is the constitution of the GPA that really irks the governors of the games.

The GPA is a dynamic and forward moving association with the savvy, for example, to make hay from the image rights of its members. It is a progressive organisation and there are sharp contrasts with the GAA.

Evolution within Croke Park has always been slow and deliberate; rightly so for an organisation whose merits stretch beyond those of a sporting nature. A knee-jerk policy will inevitably alienate more members than it will benefit and the GAA is shrewd enough to know this. When it comes to the welfare of those who promote that organisation though, a line has to be drawn and the modern world must be faced . . . ugly and all as it may be.

The situation that has developed whereby Croke Park has banned the advertising of Club Energise, a main sponsor of the GPA, shows the GAA to be laden with blinkered characteristics.

It's childish and doesn't aid relations.

Other things have goaded the GPA as well. Correspondence to the GAA goes unacknowledged and even Buddha himself can only take so much.

An all out boycott of today's games, the most important of the year so far, was never going to take place but members of the GPA were left with no choice but to raise the threat of strike action.

How else would they have grabbed such attention? Anything less would be perceived as another GPA whinge and Dessie Farrell on the soapbox once more.

The crux is, though, that the GPA has manoeuvred itself into a position whereby its next move on this issue, should there be one, is seriously limited. If the upcoming talks with the new president have an unsatisfactory result and the situation deteriorates further, then the GPA will be left with few options. If the group is to retain credibility then the natural move after a threat to strike is the actual withdrawal of services.

It s a situation nobody wants. Right now, the threat of strike is a major part of the GPA's arsenal and all week it was met with a volley of pay-for-play accusations. Push and shove, push and shove until something has to give.

Those who reckon the past few days were a lesson in player militancy should recall a dust-covered story from the annals of 1910. That was the year when the footballers of Kerry withdrew from an All Ireland final meeting with Louth. Player welfare was again at issue, with the men from Kerry complaining of poor conditions on the Great Southern Railway that transported them to Dublin. For many years players had canvassed for improved travel arrangements that would benefit themselves and their supporters and for years the railway company ignored their wishes.

Days before the All Ireland final of 1910, the Kerry team refused to travel and, in the process, deprived railway chiefs of a handsome income. With Kerry failing to show for the final, Central Council voted to award the championship to Louth in what transpired to be the ultimate stand for players' rights.

They might have turned their back on a medal but their ploy worked. The following year, 1911, Great Southern Railways improved conditions on their carriages. It's highly unlikely that the current situation will end in a similar fate with players withdrawing from games during this summer's championship. And anyway, a chink of hope may have emerged this week that can be built upon.

The setting of today's games for 3.30pm can be read as a softening of sorts among those in control in Croke Park, a tiny olive branch in a week of continuous sniping. The GAA has allowed the players group the opportunity to go ahead with its dignified protest without interference. This is significant and hopefully it can lead to fruitful discourse between the two organisations.

For all the talk and paragraphs of the week, the minutes between 3.30pm and 3.45pm this afternoon might provide everybody with a sense of perspective.