There is a sense amongst members of the GAA and supporters of its sports that Gaelic games are a phenomenon set apart. In some ways this is true. The maintenance of an indigenous sporting culture in the face of mass media and globalisation is a striking achievement.

On the negative side is the sense of cultural self-righteousness. Not content to celebrate the continuing thrall in which the games hold substantial numbers of the population, a strand of opinion within the GAA sees the association's activities as being answerable to higher values than other sports.

A variation of this attitude can be detected in respect of the drugs issue. Last weekend an agreement between the Irish Sports Council and the GAA to open up Gaelic games to drug testing came into force.

We don't know when it will be acted on. In the words of one ISC official: "We won't necessarily be able to test at every championship match. I can't go into details of likely levels of monitoring because to ensure its effectiveness, testing has to be random."

There is a strong likelihood that the GAA and ISC aren't entirely ad idem on this even though the deal has been done. The GAA would have preferred the process to start in the off-season when elite players weren't distracted by the climax of the championships.

The ISC naturally wanted the procedures to be in place for this season's big occasions and the All-Ireland semi-finals or quarter-finals had been a long-term target.

But there are problems. It is clear that the educational process vital to the effective implementation of the rules is not as far advanced as it should be. The Players' Committee of the GAA did some promotional work earlier in the year but the clear instructions to team medical officers don't appear to have been given.

The whole issue has aroused unease in some quarters of the association. There is a view that hurlers and footballers are amateurs and shouldn't have to submit to the indignities of the testing process - that such activities are for the likes of athletics and cycling. It's an appealing view but one out of sync with the real world where every sport has participants willing to cut corners.

There is also the apprehension that ordinary people doing ordinary things shouldn't suffer suspension and humiliation for taking cough medicine or other specifically-prescribed medicinal remedies.

Admirable though the wish is, it is an alarmist misrepresentation. Testing will only take place after matches and after training. There will be no teachers straining for urine samples in their schools, no frightened children wondering who those people with the test tubes are.

It is likely, according to GAA sources, that players will not be punished for bona fide consumption of medicines such as cough mixtures containing ephedrine - at least not in the short term. Irish athlete Maria McMahon had such an explanation accepted at the Atlanta Olympics.

In the long term however the fact is that team advisers are going to have monitor what players take and ensure compliance with the Anti-Doping Code accepted at last October's special congress.

Another reservation concerns the possibility of recreational drugs showing up on a test. Is it fair that what someone does in his or her social life should end up widely publicised? Leaving aside the fact that such activity is illegal; the concern is a bit of red herring.

Smoking some weed isn't going to get a player into trouble simply because it's not a banned substance in the Anti-Doping Code. Narcotics like cocaine and amphetamines are stimulants and therefore prescribed but on a practical level it's unlikely playing careers could be maintained with those substances as tipples of choice.

Is all of this an unnecessary intrusion into a leisure activity? No one can dispute that it is intrusive but equally - and sadly - no one can argue it is unnecessary. The purpose of testing is partly to eliminate cheating in sport and ensure that those obeying the rules are not at a disadvantage. But it is also to protect athletes, from themselves if necessary.

Certainly in team games the influence that drugs can have is not as obvious as in individual contests of strength and speed. But even team sports are composed of individual contests. Facets of games like rugby and football place a premium on strength.

Then there is the widespread function of steroids to enable the body to train harder for longer. That has an application in any sport. There's no drug that will make you hurl like DJ Carey or kick a ball like Maurice Fitzgerald, but there are drugs that will help you run after either of them all day - and that has its uses.

There has already been the slow drip of revelations concerning soccer players and bans handed down by governing bodies. Legally it is all a minefield - which contributes to the unease within the GAA that players may test positive because of inadvertent doping.

Dietary supplements, such as creatine, widely taken by sportspeople, including footballers and hurlers, are completely unregulated and frequently spiked with something more effective - like nandrolone.

It would be na∩ve to suppose that Gaelic games can escape contamination. In a famous survey about half the athletes in an Olympic village - in sports which were in name at least amateur until recently - admitted that they would take substances that would guarantee them a gold medal even if the side-effects were to kill them.

The competitive attitude at the highest levels of sport is obsessive and financial possibilities have little to do with it. Gaelic games is no different from any other sports in that regard. At times we celebrate that obsession but it has its dark side.