It’s the start of a new season and what better way for the GAA to set the wheels in motion than by seeking to place much greater emphasis on one attribute which much too often is sadly conspicuous by its absence - honesty.

If 2008 provided its fair share of highlights both on and off the playing field, it also accentuated the necessity for much more transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels within the Association.

It has been apparent for some time now that economy in relation to the truth is rapidly becoming a malaise within gaelic games.

The continual refusal of managers and other team officers to admit to players’ transgressions, the perceived obstinate stands taken by county boards and other bodies when justice is required to be dispensed and the almost indecent haste with which those who feel they have been ‘victimised’ have recourse to all manner of Appeals and Hearings Committees is, at best, indicative of intransigence and at worst a serious blemish on the image of the GAA as a whole.

Paul Galvin’s unseemly clash with referee Paddy Russell during Kerry’s Munster Football Championship tie against Clare last summer and the ensuing protracted campaign to have his sentence reduced certainly did not show the Association in a good light.

Nor, indeed, did the snide barbs and untoward criticism to which Tyrone manager Mickey Harte was subjected from within his own county after the Ulster Championship first round replay defeat to Down at Newry enhance the reputation of so-called Red Hands fans.

It is understandable that managers and county boards should be keen to weigh in with support for players when they have erred but in many instances, this can amount to nothing more than attempting to defend the indefensible.

It has now become almost normal practice for the majority of disciplinary decisions to face a challenge, even when television or video evidence clearly shows that the culprit is merely getting his just desserts.

And while fans pay good money to watch games - we have, of course, our army of armchair experts as well - and are entitled to articulate their views on all aspects of the GAA, scurrilous, ill-informed comments tend to say more about those making them than throw fresh light on the particular subject in question.

It would certainly be a tremendous boost to the Association if in 2009 players, referees, officials and fans were to follow the dictates of their conscience rather than slavishly set in motion a disciplinary process that more often that not achieves little.

That is not to say, of course, that there are miscarriages of justice from time to time.

Human error can intervene and there may even be the occasional flirtation with dubious practices to perhaps ensure that a particular player player may escape punishment.

GAA President Nickey Brennan has gone on record more than once lately to declare that the presentation of our games should be of paramount importance and that they should be seen in the best possible light.

Understandably, at a time when the GAA is facing stiff competition for its youth from other sports and when much greater emphasis is being placed on discipline, Nickey is anxious to see gaelic games portrayed as attractive sporting spectacles, devoid of rancour and thuggery.

One of the GAA’s greatest strengths is its family appeal - indeed, that’s why attendances at major matches have remained astonishingly high despite the progressive economic downturn. Yet in striving to ensure that the presentation of gaelic games is brushed up - at the very least - before he departs as president in a few months time, Nickey will have encountered jolts last year.

There were several instances when sportsmanship, cynicism and downright violence formed serious blots on the landscape but this should not mask the fact that we had some truly magnificent spectacles, particularly that rivetting Kerry v Galway football tie and Waterford’s superb Munster hurling championship title triumph.

Yet the Croke Park theatricals of Kerry’s Aidan O’Mahony, the ‘diving’ which appears to be more commonplace in football and the sinister impasse which pertains in relation to the Cork hurling team and their manager Gerald McCarthy are just some of the issues which did not reflect well on the GAA last year.

Grievances will always abound, disputes will arise and indeed controversy will never be too far away from the surface given the nature of sport and the complexities of its laws.

It’s how such matters are handled initially at grassroots level and subsequently within the corridors of power that ultimately determine the ongoing standing of the GAA in Irish society.

We should never be lulled into a sense of complacency that the country’s biggest sporting organisation will always enjoy universal goodwill and unequivocal support

That’s why the sooner that honesty is given a much more pronounced role in the day to day workings of the Association, the better.