Grants, awards, expenses let's move on

It's done, I'll not say over, but the GAA has formally accepted the government's grants scheme for players at Congress this morning.
The result was no surprise given the indicators we've had in recent weeks that some of the biggest county boards had moved to support the change.
I welcome the move and I know that it was passed as lamb dressed as mutton because I don't care whether you call it an expenses scheme, grants, awards or whatever but it is professionalism.
Anyone saying it is anything less than that are either being politically correct so as to get a practical solution through Congress or they are just kidding themselves.
However, I believe that some of the fears articulated by the Ulster delegates in particular are also a product of a mistaken belief that the game is still genuinely an amateur sport and that there does not exist already a layer of professionalism and elitism within our games.
No county will ever win an All Ireland again without the proper resources to provide top-class training facilities, medical support, equipment and private membership to gyms, travelling expenses, holidays and expenses, and God knows what else which has been paid for under the counter.
And as for players receiving money from endorsements and other sources all that has been going on too.
None of this is a criminal offence and in the times we live in it's what we would expect in any other walk of life as a given if we are to excel.
We have been a shamateur organisation since at least the 1970s, even today people still feel the need to pay lip service to this high principle but we need to be honest if we are going to move forward.
I think too that the Derry delegate was right when he suggests that in the future players may be sponsored from outside sources to play for their counties, it's already happening and it's a good thing.
Would any of the sides who have won the All Irelands in the last five or six seasons done so without the generous support of individuals and businesses who have picked up the tab for the 'expenses'. Of course not.
We have sponsors all over our county jerseys for God's sake and it benefits us as well as promoting the businesses which make the contribution to their county side.
We have a great line-up of National League games this weekend, let's move on from this issue and enjoy what promises to be a good season's football and we'll live in hope, that the hurling won't be the usual two-horse race.