‘Could you imagine the Connacht Warriors playing the Munster Rebels?’

If the GAA does not stall the “runaway train” that is expenditure on inter-county teams, then certain counties will cease to compete at inter-county level and the association will “march blindfolded” into a championship structure contested by franchised outfits.

That is the view of Connacht Council secretary John Prenty, who used his annual report to highlight how the “copycat tactics” of county boards is driving the GAA into the realm of “elitism, commercialism, and investment in the few over the general good of the association”.