Like business in general, costs have risen, but the recent and sharp increase in funding the preparation of county teams provides a massive strain. Many county boards pay in the region of 500,000 to finance senior county sides throughout the year; a figure that largely has more than doubled since the start of the decade.

In Limerick, for example, last year's cost of funding the nine inter-county sides came in at 747,440, an increase of 137,608 over the previous year. As recent as 2001, it cost less than half to fund the same number of teams. And the vast majority of last year's spend, over 500,000, went to the county's senior football and hurling outfits.

"Last year we ran at a loss of 140,000, " says Limerick Chairman, Denis Holmes, "so we had to take the situation into stock and look at our expenditure. Our aim for 2006, at the very least, was to keep it in line with what we spent last year. And right now we're not sure whether we've succeeded because our books are with an accountant ahead of getting the final figures.

Hopefully we've done well because we looked at every area and asked ourselves if we were getting value for money or not. Nobody can sustain continued losses, so it's very important that we get it right."

Last year's deficit takes into account two holidays for the senior teams and an extended run by the minor hurlers and the rise in costs in Limerick led to a revamping of the county's GAA supporters club, which helps foot some of the bill.

"It's a professional attitude these days and that puts costs up. There's nothing left to chance any more. Players go on training camps and there are different training methods and of course it all costs money, " adds Holmes, who estimates the cost of a single county training session at over 1,000.

"Then the dual county aspect puts added pressure on us because we're trying to prepare as well as Kilkenny in hurling and Kerry in football."

In Kerry though the same worries exist. The Kerry board are also in the process of putting together it's accounts for the season just past, but from early soundings chairman Sean Walsh is predicting another "dramatic rise" in the cost of preparing the senior hurlers and footballers for competition.

"From a football point of view, we're in the lucky position that we've been in three All Ireland finals in a row because the most costly experience for us would be to lose an All Ireland semi-final, " he explains.

"The month before an All Ireland final is your busiest time in terms of fundraising.

There are corporate dinners, car raffles and so on. You have a number of ways to raise finances at that time of the year in preparation for an All Ireland final and that, really, helps keep us afloat for the season."

If reaching the success levels of counties like Kerry is a driving force in some parts, then maintaining standards becomes the challenge for Walsh and his colleagues. He's realistic enough to realise that any pre-supposed notions of counties cutting back on team preparation is futile in the face of success and attainable goals.

"There's a lot of talk about counties cutting back on the number of training sessions, but look, the thing is that once you appoint a manager he's going to want to win every competition that's in front of him and to do that he'll prepare a team the best way he sees fit. Whatever that takes and whatever that costs, he's going to want to get results and it's up to me, as chairman, to facilitate the manager and work out a deal that's both effective financially and effective in terms of team preparation."

According to Limerick's Denis Holmes, it's a wide picture when it comes to expenditure. If the games are to thrive and survive within the county, then promotion and coaching have to be financed properly.

"It's very well that county teams take the largest chunk out of spending but there's also coaching of kids and promotion to be accounted for as well. Striking the balance becomes important and success breeds success. If your county teams are successful it leads to better sponsorship and funding and that then makes it easier to look after the coaching side."

Martin Skelly is chairman of the Longford county board and he watched with wide eyes this year as the footballers marched through summer, blazing a trail and helping the championship to catch fire. It was an unexpected good run and coupled with the staging of the Leinster championship opener against Dublin in Pearse Park, it formed one of the county's most memorable seasons for decades.

While Skelly or any of his county kin wouldn't have it any other way, the longer season did take its toll on the board's coffers. Last year, the cost of preparing the senior sides in Longford came in at 380,000. Having spoken to his treasurer, Skelly is tentatively predicting that this year's sum will be in and around "the half million mark, " a figure that the chairman reckons is roughly five times more than the cost five years ago.

"We'd gladly give our right arm and find the financing for another summer like the one just gone, but the reality is there was a price to be paid.

For small counties like Longford, there's a definite headache in getting the books right. Year after year you're hitting a very, very small pool of supporters and businesses for funding and realistically, the money required to run the county teams just isn't available in Longford."

So Skelly and his board have looked outside the county in order to finance their footballers and hurlers. There are successful Longford GAA supporters clubs in Dublin and London and last month the recently formed New York branch ran it's first fundraising drive.

On top of the expected 500,000 bill for this year's senior teams, Skelly had to contend with the unexpected bill that came with hosting Dublin in Longford. The board budgeted 100,000 to upgrade the stadium but after fire and safety needs had been met, the cost rose to 300,000.

"Those are the things that gives a county treasurer sleepless nights at this time of year. But for us, it's been worth the cost because hopefully this summer will have a knock-on effect for years to come. Even though the costs were prolonged this season, they have been increasing steadily for the past while.

So, over the last two or three years we've had to bring in some new innovations to raise finance. The Dublin supporters, for example, have begun to run a successful race day in Punchestown which brings in about 150,000 every year."

While the issue of funding teams has always been there in the background, rising costs and a more professional approach means it no longer has a cameo role. Just ask any county chairman over the next couple of weeks.