Martin McGuinness once said of David Trimble in the late '90s that "he's coming along [in his growth and understanding] by the week".

Dessie Farrell could say the same of Brennan. He started the presidency tentatively.

Between his chairing of Special Congress, his honest outrage after the second International Rules test and now, by setting the goal and deadline of the GPA being officially recognised within his presidency, he has demonstrated this past month a similar conviction, passion and leadership which defined his predecessor Sean Kelly's tenure.

Kelly has to take some of the plaudits too. Just like it was Joe McDonagh's conviction (if not his timing) that paved the way for Sean McCague to delete Rule 21, and McDonagh's FDC proposals that created the climate for McCague and his right-hand man Paraic Duffy to devise the ingenious qualifier football system, it was Kelly's open if informal dealings with the GPA that established the platform for last week's pronouncement, culminating in Farrell taking a seat at Central Council.

Momentum was lost in the final year of Kelly's tenure though, and Brennan has done well to re-generate it.

The GPA had to be recognised at some point, and Brennan deserves enormous credit for grasping and embracing that reality. Now the real issues and debate can commence.

Farrell and the players have much to offer the association; they can be an ally and asset to rather than a threat to Croke Park. Another statement from the GPA in recent days though shows that the players' body itself still has some growing up to do.

While the GPA was well within its rights to link up with its AFL colleagues in calling for the International Rules series to continue, it was astonishing for its failure to recognise or address the players' responsibilities.

"The standard of refereeing and application of sanctions were inadequate and largely to blame for the trouble, " claimed Farrell. Strange.

From this vantage point, the players and their standard of sportsmanship were largely to blame.

For every right, there's a responsibility, and as is evident in their ratio of statements on government tax breaks to discipline, too often the GPA ignore this. International Rules is one issue the GAA and GPA need to engage on, and the GPA will have to understand why they may not have support or empathy on that one.

The players and Brennan would not have got off to the best start. In his inauguration speech at Congress, Brennan loudly and proudly proclaimed that pay for play would not be entertained, let alone be realised, in his tenure, oblivious to the debate the GPA had held at its own EGM three weeks earlier when Brian Corcoran proposed it should have a mission statement declaring that it wasn't pay for play.

The GPA were unable to take a vote on that issue because of time and logistical constraints, but it's one they're likely to revisit, and one the players and Brennan will be anxious and willing to return to and comply with.

The appointment of Duffy as player welfare officer is another welcome development. Duffy has all of the soft skills and experience to know how to empathise with both officials and players; like Farrell, he's an extraordinary resource to the GAA.

There is still much for the GAA and GPA to agree on before formal recognition is granted, but it should happen within the next year. If Brennan can deliver the GPA and another meaningful debate and proposals on the structure of the hurling championship by April, he'll have had as promising an opening 12 months as any president in the last two decades.

Two months ago, we could never have seen ourselves saying that.