Times change. Yesterday's commercial deal between the Gaelic Players Association and soft drinks manufacturers Cantrell and Cochrane didn't pass unnoticed but compared to the infamous Marlborough sponsorship of three years ago there were few eyelids batted.

The launch took place in Croke Park and even allowing for GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell's tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the GAA weren't aware of that when the venue was booked, it signifies a further normalising in relations between the two bodies. During last week's sponsored hurls controversy it was even possible to detect a community of interest between the GAA and the players' union or at least a united front on the question of individual player sponsorships.

It wasn't unreasonable for Croke Park to want to ring fence its highest-profile matches against such activity even if the rulebook wasn't much use to them in trying to do so. And it wasn't unreasonable for the GPA to take a dim view of players conducting their own deals without consultation - even if the jibe that the association had failed to deliver sponsorship results for its members was close to the bone. Of additional concern to Farrell must have been the dismissive attitude towards the GPA of Wexford captain Paul Codd, who declared the organisation had done nothing for him.

So yesterday's announcement is an effective riposte on both fronts. Cynics may point out that the GPA is more of a beneficiary under this deal than the players it represents but the association's medium-term future is now secured.

More importantly for all members the sponsorship could turn out to be a watershed agreement in that it is the first time a retail product has built a national marketing campaign exclusively around Gaelic games players. If it is successful, it establishes an encouraging precedent.

The sight of players engaged in an advertising campaign is bound to make traditionalists queasy. The GPA is seen in some quarters as a stalking horse for the abandonment of amateurism although Farrell has always emphasised his membership are opposed to professionalism and semi-professionalism. Yet the whole question of amateurism will continue to simmer in the background of all such commercial activity. The arguments on either side of this issue are deeply held but it is sometimes forgotten that the principle has been conceded a long time ago.

From the moment the GAA accepted the Amateur Status report of 1997, the argument over players accepting money was essentially lost. Once endorsements were allowed and restrictions on other means of earning money for games-related activities were lifted, the right of players to material consideration was established.

It's only eight years since Dublin's Jason Sherlock - one of the players involved in yesterday's announcement - had to go through contortions to justify his part in a poster campaign. Some theological intervention deemed it permissible on the basis he was a student of sports administration and the promotion could be seen as connected to his career - the traditional get-out that spawned all those ads for agricultural chemicals down the years.

Related matters are subsidiary to the new reality.

The cost of semi-professionalism is an argument over how much and who pays. The same argument applied to team holidays 10 years ago but doesn't occupy many minds nowadays.

There is also the community-based argument, which is a combination of two considerations. One is strong; the other is an understandable reflection within a great national organisation of the great national trait of begrudgery. One high ranking official said that when his club mooted hiring a coach, one faithful vendor of raffle tickets promised never again to darken the club premises if it was decided to go down that road. The preponderance of voluntary effort at grass-root level is conducted on a recreational basis.

Last Christmas I was shown around by my brother-in-law the emerging development of a clubhouse for the Curracloe United soccer club in Wexford. It was a tale of community effort assisted by a local farmer and some lottery cash - a routine story to anyone familiar with Gaelic games. I can't imagine if the club produces a new Roy Keane that his signature on a contract with a Premiership club will trigger cries in the clubhouse of "I've sold my last ticket". But the fear that loosening ties between players and locality may undermine local allegiances is a real one.

But the next question is will the debate on amateurism make any difference?

Semi-professionalism is already here. It's just everyone's too refined to call it that. The GPA refer to their proposed €127 per week as "expenses", big holiday funds and endorsement deals are commonplace and under-the-table payments to managers and indeed some players have been going on for years.

What sport has resisted the pressures to abandon amateurism? We can argue Gaelic games are different and so they are. There isn't an international context to lever the situation and traditional jackpots like TV rights don't apply in such a restricted market. But for all that difference, recent developments within the GAA bear an uncanny resemblance to what went on in, say, rugby as it staggered out of the amateur era.

The authorities have backed down in every confrontation that involved players seeking to exploit commercial possibilities. "Shamateurism" payments go on all the time and the GAA has conceded they can't do anything about it. Why should Gaelic games be any different in the long run? The input of elite players is critical to the association. Their commitment far exceeds anything remotely recreational and their efforts have made them the most potent marketing tool the games have. Maybe their concerns can be sorted out amicably within the current structures. But it doesn't look that way.

Otherwise the GAA must quickly devise a plan that ensures it at least bucks the trend of the transition from amateurism proving so divisive.