UNBELIEVABLE, incredible, amazing and astonishing.

These are just some of the words that might be used to describe the performance of a player or a team I have seen playing over the past few years. Unfortunately, this time these adjectives can be used to describe the recent revelations at the specially-convened County Board meeting, which outlined to clubs the circumstances surrounding the current financial situation.

The reputation of the G.A.A. has been seriously damaged in Wexford and some say irreparably so. Committees and positions are not exempt from this damage. There are still many questions that have not been answered, and might never be.

Diarmuid Devereux has been lauded for his transparency and honesty in exposing the difficulties, and rightly so. At the same time it was the intelligent thing to do because at some stage there would have been consequences brought about by this previously secret situation becoming public.

What people need to consider are the consequences for people in the front line, who may suffer the wrath of the general public - the volunteers operating the turnstiles and manning the gates at matches, who may have to contend with the barbed comments of some patrons who consider admission prices to be too high; the sellers who will travel the county selling Model County Draw tickets.

How will people feel about buying them and more importantly how will club people feel about selling them? These are just two small examples.

The current state of affairs has implications for every member and every club in the county. What is the position of Leinster Council and Croke Park on this issue? The silence has been deafening or maybe they have not been asked to interfere.

Wexford is not the only County Board in financial difficulty, so maybe the policy is, you broke it so you fix it. Each county has complete autonomy, but when the state of affairs is so serious, I would be surprised if Croke Park does not interfere.

Before we go blaming individuals or committees, club members should look at themselves first. We are all happy enough to get on with our own club business and let the County Board rep. look after the issues at a higher level.

How many clubs question their rep. in detail at committee meetings to find out what has happened at the latest County Board meeting? How many members instruct their rep. to ask a question at the next meeting?

We all operate on a need to know business, and are happy to continue until something of this nature is exposed and we all become experts and are up in arms. The clubs elect people to run the association, so if the right questions are not being asked, the clubs have a responsibility too.

Where do we go from here? The Chairman is an experienced and successful businessman and has indicated his intention to make the right decisions. The G.A.A. is a business and must be treated like one at all levels.

In business, performances are constantly monitored, scrutinised and measured. Goals and targets are set and individuals and groups or committees are expected to achieve or surpass these targets. If they do not perform they are replaced.

This philosophy must now be applied at all levels in the G.A.A. in Wexford. Too much is at stake and too much damage has been done.

Key decisions must be debated openly and tough economic measures must be implemented.

It will take time but once again the G.A.A. will recover from these setbacks and continue to grow and develop.

- BILLY'S FOOTBALL ANALYSIS