In his inaugural address as GAA president, Jarlath Burns pledged to do his “utmost to stop the runaway train that is the preparation of county teams”.
Similar vows had been made before. But nobody ever stopped the train. Famously, former association president Peter Quinn once quipped that when the GAA tried to expose under-the-table payments to managers, they couldn’t even find the tables.
The underground nod-and-wink economy has continued to flourish. The numbers keep climbing as everybody tries to keep up with the Joneses.
Because if the mob over the road appointed a feng shui dressingroom consultant and subsequently had a modicum of success, then it’s time we contacted the international guild of feng shui to hire ourselves one of those lads. Or better still, just offer the neighbours’ feng shui consultant more moolah to hop across to our side of the fence.
And so the train steams onwards. For 2025, the overall expenditure on preparing intercounty teams reached €45.6 million. Costs have risen over 100 per cent in the last decade.
Tipperary were the highest spenders last year, coming in at €2.483 million. A total of six counties broke through the €2 million threshold – Galway, Cork, Limerick, Kerry and Donegal joining Tipp in the big-spenders bracket.
But a ticket inspector might now actually be about to hop aboard the intercounty locomotive.
At Congress next weekend, a motion will go before delegates to introduce an Inter-County Certification Progra
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