John Horgan on hurling: It's great to see Patrick Horgan giving back as a selector already

It's that time of the year again, GAA clubs and counties holding their AGMs and conventions when the previous season is reviewed and plans for the new one are put in place.

Long gone are the days when a club AGM might take place at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon, when many of those in attendance might be after a few... proposing this, that and the other thing. The meeting could sometimes descend into a difficult situation.

It's a very serious business now. In fact, that is what GAA clubs have become, a business concern that deals in many things, financial control is a major priority among many other things and it requires those at the top table to be on top of affairs throughout the year.

Club finances are of paramount importance and balancing the books at the end of each season is crucial.

There is so much activity going on now in all clubs, looking after the best interests of so, so many teams and players and continuing to try and upgrade facilities which will help to attract new members.

The appointment of the right people patrolling the sideline, team managers, physios, strength and conditioning, medical personnel etc, it's a far cry now from what it used to be when team preparation consisted of a few laps of the field twice a week.

For any club to be successful in an increasingly competitive environment, you need the best to try to be the best.

The club lotto is of major importance in all clubs, an effort to generate finance that will benefit activities throughout the season.

The demands on those charged with running a club are far greater now than they once were and having the right people in place is of the utmost importance.

As aforementioned, a GAA club is now a business in all but name and the chairman's address to the assembly must, if there is a need, be strong and forthright. AGMs usually take place in November and December when the playing fields fall silent and ideally, a club has its business concluded before the county convention.

In bygone times, that county convention could be a long drawn-out affair, going on for far too long and the only reason a full attendance of delegates was still in place at the end was the draws for the various championships, the last item on the agenda.

Now everything at county convention is far more structured. The draws are made separately, club motions are dealt with differently, new officers have been elected and in most counties, it is a three-year term for the top table.

SMOOTH

The county secretary and treasurer's reports are published in advance and for the most part things run smoothly enough.

Again, in times past, a county convention could feature an almighty row over some aspect of the various officers' reports and it needed the chair to be in full control.

In some clubs, it isn't always easy to get people involved and in some clubs too, involvement is nearly a full-time job.

In fact, in very high-profile clubs and counties' retired personnel are best suited to a lot of tasks which are so time-consuming.

That applies too, of course, to county team managers, something that Kerry's Jack O'Connor alluded too recently.

Being an inter-county team boss and trying to hold down a high-profile occupation is almost a 24-7 job.

The highlight of the GAA off-season used to be the provincial draws in both codes, a county waited with bated breath for who their first round opponents would be a few months later.

That is no longer the case, certainly not in hurling anyway, with the very successful round-robin format in both Munster and Leinster. In days of yore a county played the opening game in the province and if you lost your season was over in an hour.

A dwindling number might still yearn for a knockout championship but that's never going to be again and quite rightly so too.

So, it was just the football draws in the four provinces which took place last week and apart from what transpired in Ulster, nobody really got too excited.

JEOPARDY

Alongside the Munster SHC the only real jeopardy applies in the Ulster SFC, the most open of the four provinces when nothing is certain from one year to the next and up to five or six counties are in with a shout of lifting the provincial trophy.

In Connacht, for the most part, it will either be a Galway or Mayo captain holding up the trophy while it's a similar tale here in Munster, Kerry the hot choice each season, with Cork in second spot.

In all probability, they'll collide again next season and if they do it will be in the final which should generate a lot more attention.

Thankfully, there was a new name on the Leinster trophy last season with Louth claiming the prize up there and if ever a province required a change it was Leinster after Dublin's dominance.

The Leinster SHC has become too predictable too with Kilkenny raising the trophy aloft far too often and not being challenged enough by the others.

With Micheál O'Donoghue back at the helm in Galway and Dublin making progress too despite their trouncing by Cork in last season's All-Ireland semi-final, things just might be different next season but it's probably odds on that the Cats will prevail again.

Here on Leeside, the big development last week was the announcement that Patrick Horgan is going to be a selector next season with the Cork U20 squad alongside team manager Noel Furlong and former great Donal Óg Cusack.

Tadhg Óg Murphy and Sean Guiheen will be alongside them on the sideline guiding these young players.

Having got Horgan on board, that management team has to be seen as a considerable plus, the perfect role model for the players who will surely be keen to listen to any words of advice he might offer them.

And that's what Cork hurling in general needs, more former players having an involvement at all levels.

Of course, that's maybe easier said than done in the modern era but having somebody of Hoggy's calibre, his ranking as one of Cork's greatest ever forwards getting involved so quickly after calling time on his stellar career has to be seen as a huge positive.

Finally, it was just one from three from Leeside making it to the podium, on the provincial club hurling front and Kilbrittain were worthy winners over Killrossanty. Thanks to Clubber, we got to see the game and it was a pillar to post victory, providing the division with its first provincial club hurling title.

Kilbrittain has always flown the flag at its highest in West Cork and one can recall them being very competitive at senior level in the 90s, defeating clubs like Sars and Newtown in the SHC and forcing Imokilly to a replay.

Some lean times might have followed but the trajectory is upwards again.