WITH FRIDAY being D-Day for counties to submit the findings of their own internal discussions on the GAA’s document on paying managers, an almost inevitably clear outcome has emerged.

Indeed no one has yet to come out in support of paying managers – either under the table or over the table – as put forward by director general Páraic Duffy in his recently published document on the issue. Instead, the option of enforcing the so-called amateur stance appears to be getting overwhelming support, at least among those counties making their findings publicly known ahead of Friday’s deadline.

Kerry and Kilkenny were among the latest counties to discuss the issue at their board meetings on Monday night and in both cases believe the existing rules should be properly enforced. Once the counties submit the findings of their own discussions to Croke Park a further convention on the issue will be arranged, where a defining vote may be cast, but so far there is nothing to suggest that payments to managers will be made legal, at least in the short term.

“The feedback we got is that Kerry clubs are not in favour of paying managers,” says Kerry County Board chairman Patrick O’Sullivan, “although we are not completely negative on the subject. We are in favour of option two, which basically states the GAA should exercise all its power to enforce its amateur status.”

At the same time O’Sullivan indicated that Kerry’s proposals on the issue would also suggest how the rules of the association might be adhered to with some flexibility to regularize matters if they have slipped into a grey area.

Kilkenny chairman Paul Kinsella also revealed the outcome of their discussion on the issue was unanimous: “We met all of the club officers on Monday night and the overwhelming view was to implement the current rules. Nobody got hot under the collar or anything about it.”

Kilkenny’s stance is hardly surprising given their hurling manager Brian Cody already came out last week and declared that paying managers “would be a disaster”.

Louth will discuss the issue at their county board meeting this evening, and chairman Pádraic O’Connor admitted the unlikelihood of any county openly agreeing to paying managers: “This is something that has been slipping along in the GAA for 15 to 20 years and now we have stopped to consider things. It brings into question the whole voluntary aspect of the association and there’s a big responsibility for any one county to go against that.”

Among the other counties to already declare their opposition to paying managers are Cork, where earlier this month chairman Bob Ryan sought delegates’ views on the issue, and the resulting show of hands meant the board voted unanimously in favour of implementing its existing policy on amateur status, and thus submitted that finding to Croke Park.

In the meantime, Antrim hurling manager Jerry Wallace, who endures possibly the most demanding commute from his home in Cork to take charge of their training sessions at Casement Park in Belfast, has stated that the GAA’s existing expenses system for managers suffices, and doesn’t see any straightforward way for counties to start paying managers, even if they wanted to.

Wallace drives nearly 400km two or three times a week, coaches a hurling team with little chance of winning a major prize, then drives back, for nothing more than “legitimate expenses” – and that’s good enough for him.

“Since I’ve been involved with the intercounty scene, from 2004, I’ve always got expenses, and I’m happy with that,” he says. “I’m still involved with my own club at home, Midleton, and never looked for a fee.

“All I’ve ever looked for was a legitimate expense, and I think that’s the road the GAA has to stay on.

“Because I just can’t see how it would be funded. I’m in charge of an intercounty team now, and I see the costs we’re incurring at the moment. I can tell you all it’s been in Antrim for the last two months is outgoings.

“It’s an ongoing debate, within the overall GAA family, and it does need a fair, mature reflection on where it is going at this moment.

“I’ve yet to meet anyone who is benefiting from the payments, under the table or over the table. I’ve never seen a county manager driving around in a Porsche. And until such a time as someone comes out and substantiates these massive payments I’d be still debating it.”