Early into his reign as Wexford senior hurling manager, Davy Fitzgerald was making demands of the Wexford county board that they had not previously accounted for:
I asked the county board for 160 balls for the first night in training, they nearly had a seizure. I told them I wanted that every night.
Well, along with the spiked increase in funding sliotars for the senior panel, Wexford GAA have announced an overall increase of €250,000 in team costs for 2017 - a 36% increase on spending in 2016.
Performance wise, the effects of this increase in funding remain a little hazy.
Despite recording a long-overdue, and much celebrated win against Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final back in June, Wexford still only managed to reach the quarter-final stage of this year's All-Ireland.
While some fans of Wexford hurling would probably have sanctioned the additional spending of a quarter of a million euro for that victory against the Cats, no tangible progress was made on 2016 - Wexford exiting the championship at the same stage as they did in 2017.
Yet, certain forces beyond Wexford's immediate control have shaped these increased fees. The Irish Independent have reported that,
Additional mileage being paid to players as a consequence of the 2016 GAA/GPA agreement is being cited as a factor in some of the financial reports being presented.
However, "the pursuit of success and improvement continues to" constitute the primary reason behind such increases.
Naturally enough then, it is little surprise that the additional €250,000 Wexford have spent reflects a wider scale increase on behalf of most counties across the country.
Cork, a county whose footballers and hurlers operate on a more even keel than Wexford's, posted a 27% (€370,000) rise in costs, bringing their total to €1.74 million for 2017 - only a few thousand euro less than Dublin's outlay of €1.75 million.
Across Offaly, Kildare, Laois, Meath and Donegal, significant increases were also reported.
It isn't all blind expenditure however. Wexford, on account of the renewed enthusiasm for the county's hurlers this year, pocketed an additional €447,135 for 2017.
With such astronomical funds being spent and received however, some will question what value the pursuit of success in this fashion truly has.
Given that so few counties will ever reach the heights their spending hopes to elevate them toward, queries as to whether such money could be allocated better are inevitable.
