Ten days after taking office . . .and 10 days after putting player welfare top of his priority list . . . the new president will sit down with representatives of the GPA for a meeting that Brennan described to the Sunday Tribune as "the first in a series of future discussions."

At Congress last weekend the Kilkenny native devoted almost one quarter of his opening address to the issue of player welfare. If speculation ruled that this topic would be central to his tenure as president then Brennan was merely reinforcing the notion. He outlined eight constructive initiatives which, he said, will see the GAA deal with the welfare of players in a more progressive manner; but he drew a firm line as well.

Before an almost captive audience he said the idea of pay for play would not even be entertained during his threeyear presidency. "I wanted to be up front with the GPA", he said. "I had to state openly and from the outset that it [pay for play] will never be on my agenda. I think I got the mood of Congress right . . . they pretty much endorsed 100% the stand I was taking on the matter. It had to be said lest there be any ambiguity about it."

So now, the GPA knows where it stands but the thing is, the players' body has long argued that it is not about pay for play. What really cocked the ears of the players' representatives, then, was Brennan's subsequent remark that the ultimate aim of the GPA is this idea of pay for play. There's an obvious misunderstanding between what the GPA stands for and what Brennan believes its motives are and both sides are looking on Tuesday's meeting as an opportunity to get certain things straight.

It's the interpretation of the phrase 'pay for play' that lies at the heart of the misunderstanding and this definition will determine to some extent the relationship between Brennan and the GPA. If Brennan's term will be assessed on how he deals with the player's body, then the interpretation of 'pay for play' increases in significance. Clearly, the GPA believes that the inclusion of its players in the government grants scheme does not constitute pay for play but the new president isn't necessarily in agreement.

Although Brennan has openly outlined his stance on pay for play, he has yet to define his understanding of the concept.

Asked if he believes the sports grants scheme is a form of pay for play he was non-committal. "That's part of what we have to find out from these meetings, " he said.

"When I get some answers from the GPA and when I've spoken to the Minister [for Sport] we'll take a position on that but we're not prepared to declare a position yet. I specifically didn't refer to that at Congress for the simple reason that I wanted to get an opportunity to speak to the officers of the GPA on the matter. I want to see what they have to say."

So the door is far from closed on sports grants at this stage but if the GPA is to receive association backing for grants, it will have to persuade the new president that this does not fall under the umbrella of pay for play. Here lies the nub of future debate.

Although the two associations have presented Tuesday's meeting as little more than a fleshing out of each other's opinions, the sooner this interpretation is broached the better.

Should Brennan emerge from talks believing that the sports grants scheme detracts from the voluntary nature of the association, then the first real stand-off between the GAA and intercounty players won't be far down the track. For now though, everybody involved in the upcoming discussions will be adamant that at least some sort of mutual ground can be settled on and it can't but help that the president has given unprecedented commitment to the welfare of players.

There are other issues to be broached on Tuesday as well.

If discussions between both parties are to bear fruit in the coming months, then the player's association must seek to have the GAA recognise it as an official body. At present, it surely irritates the GPA that it is not seen by the GAA as a totally legitimate organisation. Whether or not the GAA is willing to soften its stance on the matter is an issue that Brennan is again unwilling to discuss ahead of this week's meeting.

"Until we understand the GPA a little better than we do at the moment then there's no other stand we can take.

We won't exclude anything from discussions though.

Recognition might become an issue but at this stage it's not on the cards. We'll see how discussions progress and that [official recognition of the GPA] may be one of the outcomes."

Already it's been a hectic beginning to his new post.

During the week he took the unprecedented step of apologising to Allianz, the sponsors of the National League, for the poor attendance at last weekend's games. He stopped short of criticising the decision to take the football final out of Croke Park due to the Heineken Cup semi-final in Dublin on the same day. But that apology shows a president with enough business sense to ensure sponsors remain content.

His views on the structure of competitions have also taken some by surprise. Most radical of all is his suggestion to the Competitions Control Committee to consider a merger of the under-21 and minor grades to an under-19 level. Though he correctly identified the college and career pressures those who compete at these two levels are under, he failed to grasp that an abolition of these two grades would have a profound and negative affect on both hurling and football.

Brennan also bucked the trend when he determined that football is a code that also suffers from a dominance of success in certain counties. "The reality with the senior football championship is that many counties have no chance of success, " he said.

"Since 1970 eight teams have captured the McCarthy Cup, while in that same period of time only three more counties captured the Sam Maguire Cup. A recent suggestion that some first-round provincial championship losers would play in the Tommy Murphy Cup where the eventual winner would re-enter the championship at a later stage is worthy of serious consideration."

It may be his dealings with the GPA and his advances in player welfare that dominate his term as president, but he has a major role to play with regard to the topic that hovered greatest over his predecessor. "When we sit down to negotiate for the use of Croke Park beyond 2007 I expect to see clear tangible evidence that the planning process relating to Lansdowne Road is making progress, " he said.

If work on Lansdowne Road does not commence next year due to problems with planning permission, then the president will declare the matter open to Congress once again.

It's a long road but the outcome of Tuesday's meeting should provide the first small sign of the direction the association is heading under Nickey Brennan.