THAT, said Sean McCague, is nonsense, and I'll tell you why. No one who's been chairman of GAC (the GAA's Games Administration Committee) is going to be elected president. He was responding a few years ago to the suggestion that he would be a candidate for the top position in the Association.

Tomorrow will tell whether this reservation was valid, but when did he change his own mind? "There was no one thing that changed my mind. I hadn't decided up until Congress in 1995 but as time passed, people said I should let my name go forward. If you hear something often enough, you believe it.

Those who know, or have even observed, McCague over the years as an administrator and football coach would consider it unlikely that his decision to enter the presidential race was triggered by anything quite as whimsical as that.

His priorities are three fold reform of administrative structures, promotion of the games to a young public and meeting the needs of players, whether this involves the question of reasonable expenses for those at the top or the simple provision of matches for those whose involvement is at the more recreational level.

Sean McCague's story in the GAA is a multi faceted one, from administration to coaching to his appearances as an exceptionally lucid analyst on BBC Northern Ireland's `The Championship'.

By his own admission a mediocre footballer, he involved him self from an early age in administrative affairs and rose through his club, Scotstown, toe become Monaghan county secretary at the strikingly early age of 24.

He stayed in the post only a couple of years before spending some time on the Ulster council. By this stage, the activity which made him famous was beginning to take up more and more of his time.

His keen powers of observation and clarity of analysis marked him down as a natural coach. When he took over the Monaghan football team, they hadn't won Ulster for nearly 40 years, despite being the second most successful county in the history of the championship.

Under McCague in 1979 the county then largely known for the uninhibited physicality of its football won its first provincial title since, 1938. "He changed them from a crowd of gangsters, is one observer's acerbic description of the turnaround.

To this initial achievement he added two more Ulster titles and a National League in 1985 the county's first and only national title. He was appointed assistant to Eugene McGee on the management team of the Irish squad for the International Rules series in 1987 and in Australia in 1990.

By now, off field activities were reviving, with his election as Monaghan's Central Council delegate in 1985, a post he still holds. Appointed chairman of GAC by Peter Quinn, McCague says the appointment flabbergasted him, but he decided to "give it a go".

The GAC is the senior Croke Park committee. It decides national fixtures and disciplinary matters and its decisions attract more attention than any other, Croke Park body.

McCague's tenure was distinguished by a direct attitude to problems. Foul play and, particularly, off the ball fouls were severely punished and fixture setting was pursued in a robustly straightforward manner that occasionally irritated those involved.

He has also been a strong advocate of the use of video evidence in disciplinary matters "It is used to serve justice, to help come up with a more just decision," he says.

His apprehensions about the possibility of having created enemies during this time have been allayed. "I think GAA people and officials are bigger than any annoyance they might feel particularly at county committee level, because they sometimes need to do the same thing themselves."

He denies the suggestion that he is anti soccer, pointing out his respect for those who give up their time to coach soccer with children. But he shares the strong sense of cultural nationalism common in Ulster counties.

"I'm against allowing confusion develop that all games are equal.

That's not my view, I believe our games are better because we re more than a games' organisation. They are part of our Irishness and we promote our Irishness through our games. With the bombardment of soccer from Sky TV, we have to market and promote our games more effectively. It's a question of investment. All kids want to do is play we've got to attract them.

"I'd have no equivocation about the physical property of the GAA. It was totally intended for GAA use only and I don't see that situation changing in my lifetime."

Similarly, his views on Rule 21, the ban on Northern security forces, are conventional. "I'd dearly like to think we can have a situation where there's no such thing as a ban but I don't believe as long as the political situation is as it is, that the GAA can unilaterally take that decision."

Might removal not contribute to, improving the situation? "I think it would be seen by our members in the north as another let down at a time when they need most support. I don't think that gives them a veto. Many others throughout the 26 counties feel that way out of solidarity."