‘A professional GAA: what would it look like and at what cost?’

It’s the third rail of the GAA, a subject so politically sensitive that players and officials seldom utter it by name - preferring the ‘P’ word. Surely it’s time to throw GAA professionalism on the table for debate, argues one former inter-county star

IN May 1977, a wealthy Australian businessman, Kerry Packer, announced the formation of World Series Cricket. At the time, the game of cricket was essentially amateur but hugely popular. Packer’s contention was that cricket was, thus, “the easiest sport in the world to take over, because nobody bothered to pay the players what they were worth”.

Packer simply cherry-picked a selection of players and went about setting up his own league to reflect the commercial realities of the game.