We use the Lagrange-Bürmann inversion theorem to characterize the generating function of the central coefficients of the elements of the Riordan group of matrices. We apply this result to calculate the generating function of the central elements of a number of explicit Riordan arrays, defined by rational expressions, and in two cases we use the generating functions thus found to calculate the Hankel transforms of the central elements, which are themselves expressible as combinatorial polynomials. We finally look at two cases of Riordan arrays defined by non-rational expressions. The last example uses our methods to calculate the generating function of .