Dessie Farrell, chairman of the GPA: "Football costs me money, it costs career prospects"

"It's not all about greed and a handful of players getting their hands on a few grubby notes. What concerns the GPA is stuff you don't necessarily think about. For some guys it's meals and training gear, for others it's injuries. I remember Kieran McGeeney speaking to me about this and he is so meticulous, not in a greedy selfish way but just as an organised kind of guy. He knew what it had cost him. That made me think. Football costs me money, it costs career prospects. I went to Kevin Street (College)for a year, I stopped to start work for a few bob and I said I'd go back and do something by night but there's always football.

"Players love the games. They feel the honour and the pride and it's grand in theory but there is a bigger picture. When I was injured a few times I realised I was just a number. If I couldn't play after being injured, well it was tough. I can remember scrimping and scrounging for me few bob to come in from the club. In work people pass you out, you don't have time for courses etc, you remain stagnant. An All-Ireland medal satisfies your sporting goals but pushing a career under the carpet for 10 years is the downside.

"I think at this stage we need to sit down with a couple of the top people in Croke Park. It is within their power to let us stew but you would like to think in this day and age and taking regard of the way the games have developed that they wouldn't take that line. From a player's perspective Jarlath Burns is our only point of contact and input right now. He's a good fella but he wouldn't see eye to eye with myself on a lot of things and as a result he wouldn't see eye to eye with several hundred more hurlers and footballers. That doesn't mean that these things can't be sorted out

"Croke Park could have us over a barrel. I don't think players would strike, they wouldn't be willing to do that and they wouldn't be asked to. In that regard though, the stand-off and the hostilities serve no purpose really. Initially we had to do something to draw attention to ourselves but now I think it's time to listen and talk.

"We miss such good opportunities. A guy like Jason Sherlock should have been made semi pro in 1995. I remember Joe McDonagh being in Na Fianna and we had a conversation. He was asking me what sort of fella would Jason be, which is reasonable because you don't want an idiot in there, and I was telling him there would be no problems with Jason. I'm not sure if Joe wanted to do it and his hands were tied but we are so fuddy duddy about things. So slow.

"The whole soccer in Croker nonsense looked so bad to people outside, we were all tarred with the one brush after that. We move in the right way but it's so slow."