Contracts for managers is a live issue now due to comments from GAA President Jarlath Burns
What we do know is that management has increasingly become the preserve of those with time on their hands. Teachers were often common, now there are a few retired teachers, or teachers on career breaks.
The GAA's notion of amateurism has always been a strange beast. Many would be surprised to learn that a supposed core principle isn't even rooted in any historical stance.
Instead, the decision was taken in the early days to steer away from professionalism simply because the money wasn't there. Indeed, in the first decade of the GAA's existence, there were cash prizes that were later replaced by books of Irish interest.
After a time, gold medals came on board but this led to heated arguments about the expense and quality of the gold being used.
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Fast forward to the foundation of the GPA and their campaign which eventually led to inter-county players being grant-aided by the State.
There was a huge element of hypocrisy in the manner in which the GPA's critics rounded on them for daring to look for such grants.
After all, a blind eye has been turned to so much of the shamateur nature of much of the GAA's workings for years.
There were the sanctioned weekend trips to clubs in America where players were handed brown envelopes packed with dollars but everybody pretended it wasn't happening.
Then there is the fact that hundreds of managers and coaches, at club as well as at county level, are paid to look after teams.
And the players themselves have been walking billboards since shirt advertising was allowed in 1991.
This brings into sharp relief some welcome straight talking by GAA President Jarlath Burns on RTE's Sunday Sport programme.
"One of the committees we have going is the amateur status committee - we haven't looked at the amateur status since 1997, in that what does it mean to be a GAA inter-county player in 2024 and what does it mean to be a manager?
"I think there will be a debate on whether we should put managers on contract. because it is nearly a full-time job, the amount of accountability is there. Even when you are winning there can be difficulty listening to criticism.
"I have great sympathy for manager and I take my hat off to them. They don't do it for the money, they do it because they want to be part of something bigger."
Asked directly by Marie Crowe if he felt managers should be put on contracts, Burns made it clear that it wouldn't be his call to make.
"That is a big philosophical question to answer. I don't have any executive power in the GAA,'' he said.
"We all know for many, many years that generous expenses have been given to managers and I'm not going to comment on that and you don't comment on what you don't know."
What we do know is that management has increasingly become the preserve of those with time on their hands. Teachers were often common, now there are a few retired teachers, or teachers on career breaks.
There are plenty of GAA people who'd love to devote themselves to coaching but their day jobs won't allow it.
Increasingly, wealthy business people in Ireland, the UK, the US and elsewhere play a big part in financing inter-county teams.
It's hard to preach the gospel of amateurism when that is the case. Burns may just have opened the door to a radical new future.
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