Seán Kelly marked the end of a restless year on Saturday. Kerry's first GAA president took office at the end of the association's 2003 annual Congress, held in the Europa Hotel, Belfast.

His inaugural speech was impressively ambitious and provided an initial riposte to those who feared that last year's overwhelming election victory might prove a hard act to follow.

Before the customary retinue of family, including his parents, Hannah and Pádraig, and friends and neighbours who had travelled from Kilcummin, near Killarney, Kelly's address was laced with humour and what he acknowledges is a Kerryman's fondness for poetic phraseology.

But it also contained more substance than might normally be expected on such occasions. It is ironic, given Kelly's more oratorical style, that whereas predecessor Sean McCague's inaugural speech was notable for some big-picture ideas, Saturday's manifesto was more of a nuts-and-bolts manual.

Yet if he implements even a substantial portion of it, this will be a busy presidency. In the aftermath the mood among cynics ranged from the grumpy (and not entirely serious) observation that the promised rationalisation of Croke Park's committees seemed to entail the creation of more office holders than before to the more earnest reservation that the new president was leaving himself "a lot to live up to".

Already Kelly must hit the ground running as a shuttle diplomat in an attempt to broker a deal in the intractable squabble between Dublin and Leinster over the proposed super-committee intended to oversee GAA development in the capital.

Consequently this was a subject on which the president passed no comment.

Another potential minefield had been roped off for the time being. Kelly's plans to conduct elections to a Players' Committee appear to have hit a snag. The unofficial players' union, the GPA, had stated clearly at its January a.g.m. that it was asking players not to participate in Croke Park's committee.

That evidently remains the position and Kelly - prudently in the circumstances - said in his speech he was "leaving the door open for the involvement of players, as I am anxious to give our intercounty players a role in the democratic process . . ." But he also announced that he was establishing a separate work group for club players.

Among the undertakings made in the speech was that he would accept no social engagements for those Fridays when the GAA's Management Committee was due to meet.

There followed the substance of his administrative ambitions for the next 12 months. Issues that particularly need addressing would include: "The length of term for Central Council provincial delegates; the role of full-time county administrators vis-à-vis the voluntary sector needs clarifying; the length of time any one person can serve on a committee needs to be examined; the size of committees; the amount of committees any one person can serve on at one time; the necessity of dividing the now grossly overburdened GAC into two separate sections - fixtures and discipline."

To enthusiastic applause he said: "There are too many committees, with too many on them, often for too long, that met too often, achieved too little and cost too much."

Coaching was a matter for further scepticism.

"I have had some grave concerns about the whole coaching area for some time. Are we getting value for money? Should we consider employing part-time rather than full-time coaches? Why don't we target those with a proven track record of voluntary service?"

Kelly also announced the establishing of three "very important new work groups": Marketing, PR and Presentation, and Social and Awards (to examine, inter alia, "the scope for recognition of more people and achievements".