Having worked in the press throughout his reign, there can be no doubting what Liam Mulvihill did for the GAA. You can't argue with facts and figures and when he started in his role, effectively as chief executive, the income of the association was less than 250,000. Today it is 44m. But at the same time, while hugely effective, he was someone that was unorthodox. Most people in the country won't be sure of who he is and what he did. That's because he was never visible, never outspoken, never one for the public eye. He only had one outlet every year and that was his report to Congress and it summed up the GAA very accurately, but sadly people don't pay it much attention as they are focussed on other things.

But when we think back about Liam Mulvihill, Croke Park will always come to mind. There would have been a new Croke Park but without him it would have been a much lesser version. He took it on as a personal crusade examining stadia throughout the world and picked the best based on American versions.

There were many presidents during the construction but he was ever-present and the one who said let's go for the very best with this.

The GAA now have an option going forward as regards the position of Director General. They could just find a straight replacement but they now have a chance to revamp. More and more, that role is like one of a president while the actual president has become more of a PR person as we've seen with Sean Kelly and now Nickey Brennan. So maybe now the GAA needs to restructure things to accommodate this discrepancy.

THE FORMER PRESIDENT SEAN KELLY

Through my presidency and through our wives who would have been together in college together, myself and Liam would have known each other for a long time and I can assure you his greatest asset was his dedication and his diplomacy. He put the head down, got on with the work, never complained. He was different to a normal CEO in that he implemented the decisions of others. He may not have always agreed but he accepted them and worked religiously to implement what others had decided. He was right in that regard because he recognised this was not a business, it was a voluntary organisation. All that allowed the association to progress extremely well under his remit.

Everyone will talk about his legacy as being the transformation of the GAA over 30 years in terms of games programme, attendances, income and the infrastructure, especially Croke Park.

But I think myself, probably one of his key achievements was to manage the northern situation in times of trouble.

People knew they could confide in him, he wasn't doing anything for profile or media attention. He did it for the good of the association and I think he was well respected because of that. He kept the lid on things behind the scenes and kept the GAA out of any political situations that were occurring. He was a very useful shoulder for the people in the northern counties to lean on at that time.

I will say that going forward it would be a huge mistake to give a contract of more than seven to 10 years to anyone in a key position in the association. For the good of the GAA, that applies to Liam's successor as well.

THE FORMER PLAYER LARRY TOMPKINS Since I was involved with the GAA as a club player, county player, manager all the way along, Liam Mulvihill has been there and he's never changed a bit. For everyone involved he was always an easy man to talk to, always very receptive to people and always extremely good with advice. When I started out, my own club and most throughout the country were togging out under ditches and hedges and just look at how far even the clubs have come because of him.

When you look at attendances, TV interest, media coverage, it's a different game and much of that is down to the work he put in and the way he changed things. In fact he's leaving with the association in such a healthy state that for the next person into that role, it's just a question of keeping things in motion whereas he had to set things in motion. Now for the association to progress the GAA has to bring youngsters to Croke Park, accommodate their needs and matches in a stadium he is responsible for.

In conversations with Ewan MacKenna