South Sydney rugby league club reached the end of the road last Friday. After 90 years of pride and passion a judge ruled that Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd company was within its rights to toss the Rabbitoh's overboard. Murdoch bought rugby league in 1995, transfused money into it and then turned the game on its head and almost drowned it. Last winter he had to rationalise it into a 14-team league. South Sydney, one of the game's great working class clubs, had no place as it didn't meet certain financial criteria.

The Rabbitohs argued that they had had to struggle by while teams in new markets had been financed by Murdoch. They argued that the club "existed for the people who love and support it, not as a product". The Federal Court said otherwise. The specific subject matter "was whether commercial interests should be permitted to commodify something that Souths (the club) considers is valued in a section of the community".

Commercial interests won. They always do. That which is of value in a community can be commodified.

I hope they noticed the demise of the Rabbitohs in Killarney this weekend. The Gaelic Players' Association got a whole lot better looking when it elected Dessie Farrell, Seamus Moynihan and James O'Connor to its officerships, three good guys who will put to an end the era of publicity stunts and vulgar garishness which marked the first year or so of the association's life.

The only thing which would be more impressive than any of the three players elected would be if one of them was an unknown from a weaker county. As it is, the GPA still looks like a star vehicle.

Where does the GPA go from here? What happens if Sean McCague and Liam Mulvihill don't come down and embrace Dessie Farrell at the gates of Croke Park? What if they decide that dealing with a Players' Committee is fine. No US and THEM, thanks all the same.

The GAA knows it can win the PR battle on this one. The GPA is agitating for what is still a blurry agenda and agitating on the basis of star power.

Take the numbers. The GPA claims 400 members. This from a GAA membership of 750,000. The GPA, by its own reckoning, represents about a quarter of senior intercounty players. Far fewer than a quarter of that membership were in Killarney at the weekend.

No other group so small would be accorded the same respect and attention. No matter how softly the GPA speaks, its big stick will always be the non-co-operation of star names, and the big commercial carrot will always be the availability of star names. Little wonder the GPA more often looks like an agency than a union.

While it is still an occasion of sin to speak of professionalism, I think it is safe to assume that the GPA will ultimately be about MONEY. Once money seeps into a structure like the GAA, there is no known treatment.

The GPA's last two big gestures were commercial, not humanitarian: the announcement of another GAA awards scheme and the announcement of a player sponsorship deal. Soon somebody will say bluntly that the stars want more. Then we can start.

It will be interesting. Mick McCarthy says that there are two types of people in his professional world: those in the tent pissing out and those outside pissing in. The GPA must decide which side of the canvas they are on.

Some things will happen in the next while: first, RTE will face severe competition for the domestic rights to the hurling and football championships. This can come from TV3 or Murdoch or a hungry rights company putting together a package.

There will be more money. Will the GPA demand a bigger slice? Will they threaten a breakaway competition if not?

Will they insist that dividing the money out among clubs, schools and venues, as the GAA have always done, is still good enough? Not if their response to the structure of the GAA's player sponsorship proposals is any gauge.

Will the GPA insist that the 20 hours a week given to the GAA by Gearoid O Geansai, a teacher in Longford, are of equal value to the 20 hours given by Seanie O'Sponsored-star of the All-Ireland champions?

Probably not. By making their pastime into a labour and linking it directly to the GAA's income the GPA confers on itself the right to withdraw that labour and the power to hurt the GAA where it hurts - in contract negotiations and implementation. Even if all the underage coaches in the country banded together and withdrew their labour, they would lack that power.

With second chances being built into new championship structures, a sponsor no longer takes the chance of a player giving them little exposure. We are arriving at a time in which a savvy star player in a large market (they used to call them counties) will be able to negotiate perhaps u100,000 over £100,000 over four years from a principal sponsor, as well as some knick-knacks and gewgaws from other commercial well-wishers.

The star player would thus be able to give up work and live the life of a full-time or part-time athlete, tending to his website and his endorsements while not training or resting. He might be able to claim a Government grant in his pursuit of excellence.

Eventually Packie Mac-Big-star-in-a-wee-county will get fed up. He'll sue the GAA for denying him the right to play in a bigger market. What will the GPA say?

Players will move around frantically until we are left with maybe a 14-team league like Murdoch's and a regionalised professional game disconnected from the main body of the GAA and fighting it out with Manchester United Superstores for the attention of the next generation. And who will represent these tough guys?

I'm not sure that Jamesie, Seamus and Dessie mean for all this to happen; in fact I'm sure they don't. Yet I am confident that most young men would love the chance to play in their prime and get paid for it. It's hard to argue against that, except on behalf of all those who depend on the GAA for mere enjoyment and social nourishment and feel threatened by the sudden sense of disconnection from the stars.

Tread softly fellas, and mind the Rabbitohs.