County boards spent an average of 518,000 each in their pursuit of hurling and football success last year, a 55 per cent increase in the space of only three seasons.

Want some more GAA financial statistics? No problem. There are plenty of them to go around.

Only six counties (Leitrim, London, Louth, Monaghan, Waterford and Wicklow) spent less than 300,000 on preparing their intercounty teams in 2005 whereas 12 spent more than 600,000.

While another 12 counties reported losses on their activities, 10 counties recorded six-figure surpluses, with Galway, who finished over 320,000 ahead after spending 1.06m on their intercounty teams, particularly entitled to jump up and down for joy. But spare a thought for Limerick, whose operating deficit of 142,787 was by some distance the biggest in the country.

Thing is, spending lavishly on one's teams doesn't necessarily mean one is condemned to finish the year with a large hole in the finances. Kerry turned a profit of 130,934 in 2005 despite total expenditure of over 3.5m, 621,913 of it on the county teams. Clare spent almost exactly the same amount on the wearers of the saffron and blue yet finished 141,492 in the black.

Tyrone not only reclaimed Sam but announced a surplus of 221,000 at the end of a glorious season, team administration expenses of 833,000 notwithstanding.

And so on and so forth.

The bare figures don't always tell the full story.

Cavan's outlay of 569,120 on teams included an allocation of over 110,000 for summer camp gear. Spending of 472,398 in Wexford had the price of the hurlers' holiday in Thailand built in. Not a red cent of Limerick's expenditure of 747,440 on teams, meanwhile, was provided by their very own Santa Claus, JP McManus. "This was entirely from the board's own resources, " county secretary Jimmy Hartigan confirms.

There's one notable gap in the accompanying table of county-by-county expenditure and income. Armagh are keen to keep the rest of the world in the dark as to how much it costs to prepare their teams. "No, we don't want that information appearing in the national media, " their treasurer Peadar Murray states baldly.

Not that censorship and paranoia are alive and well and living somewhere near Crossmaglen or anything.

But it's fair to assume that Armagh were one of the counties who spent more than 600,000 on their teams.

There's almost uniform agreement from county chairmen that expenditure on intercounty teams is in danger of rising to worrying levels. It might not be that the bulk of each county board's budget is spent on preparing teams, but it certainly appears that way.

Where at least one chairman is concerned, spending has already passed the boundaries of the acceptable.

"Counties will not be able to sustain costs, " Dick Miller of Laois predicts. "And you talk about professionalism. . . ?" A number of managers, Meath's Brendan Dempsey adds, have the "best of both worlds . . . they have a blank cheque and they don't have to balance the books. In some cases there are no controls in place."

How do you go about tackling the problem? "Focus properly, " is the advice of several chairmen. Close the stable door before the horse has a chance to bolt rather than after the fact. Charlie O'Donnell and the other elders of the Donegal county board sat down last October with Brian McIver, their new football manager. McIver outlined his plans for 2006; they listened and agreed to the financial outlay involved. "As long as it's planned, it's no problem, " O'Donnell believes.

While accepting that spending on intercounty teams has "gone a bit high", Armagh chairman Joe Jordan agrees that it's up to each county board to negotiate with team management. "At the same time, you don't want to be penny-pinching, " Jordan says. "Success breeds success. You have to spend X number of pounds to get the return. Every county and every management have to sit down and look to see are there areas where spending can be cut back. The physio thing, for instance, seems to have become a cottage industry."

Costs only go out of control if you allow them to, according to Down's Jerry Quinn.

"Players deserve to be treated as well as possible within a county's means. Nowadays, why should a player settle for anything less than a good meal after training? If he was out on a date or out with his family, he'd be getting one.

But then a county football team might wonder why should they settle for a twostar hotel when the international team is staying in a five-star hotel. There's a lot of pressure there. Peer pressure. It needs to be managed."

Additional help from on high wouldn't go astray, it seems. John McSparran in Antrim wants to see better back-up and training from Croke Park for county administrators, particularly those on the financial side ("we are asking voluntary people to handle vast quantities of money"). Ned Quinn of Kilkenny reckons that remuneration from central funds to the counties should be linked to championship matches, not league matches.

In the end, however, county board finances are unquestionably one area where God helps those who helps themselves.