GAA President Nickey Brennan believes young Gaelic footballers are being sold grand dreams of a life Down Under by Australian Football agents, dreams that he says will not come true for the majority.
"Agents come from Australia and fill (Gaelic footballers') minds with grandiose ideas of major games and major salaries when in reality it may very well not be the case," he says.
It's easy to see why young players would be attracted to Australian Football League (AFL).
There is the possibility of training professionally; playing in huge stadiums in front of huge crowds on a regular basis; getting paid for it; perhaps even reaching celebrity status and all the thrills and frills that come with that.
But it's these grand ideas that Brennan fears could cloud the judgment of Irish teenagers when they are offered the opportunity to give AFL a shot.
"For the majority of these players their trip to Australia may be a great adventure but it is going to end in failure," insists the GAA president.
"That is absolutely certain for the majority. And what have they got to fall back on when it's over? They can certainly come back and resume club and county careers but will they have the educational background to support another career?"
The BBC understands that the majority of those approached by AFL scouts recently have been young men in the early stages of third level education.
"Maybe they think they can find another Martin Clarke on the cheap"
Brennan is concerned that the educational needs of such players will not be met and they will have nothing to fall back on if a professional career in AFL fails.
He knows the GAA can not stop young players from travelling to Australia but he hopes it can ensure they know what they are getting into and perhaps provide them with some support. After all, they are still amongst the Gaelic fraternity.
"I'd like to think that as an association we would still feel a responsibility towards those players and maybe we can come to some arrangement with the AFL to ensure that if players decide to go that they are well looked after and have somebody thinking about them at home, not just their parents."
Maybe these players are being sold a dream. Or maybe they are being sold as a dream to AFL clubs eager to find fresh talent quickly.
On Tuesday night, BBC Newsline revealed a letter from Aussie Rules agent Ricky Nixon to AFL clubs in which he promises to collect detailed information on the top 14-20 year old Gaelic footballers in every county across Ireland for a fee of 15,000 Euro per year.
Martin Clarke's remarkable rise to prominence with Melbourne club Collingwood left Australian scouts wondering if they could find another Gaelic protégé to quickly adapt to the oval ball.
"Maybe they think they can find another (Clarke) on the cheap," says Brennan.
606: DEBATE
Clarke was 17 years old when he was flown from Kilkeel in county Down to Australia for one month's trial with Collingwood in July 2006. One year later he was nominated for a NAB AFL Rising Star award.
His was the "grandest story in football" that year, said Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse who believed Clarke's ability to adapt to the game in just one year was "just outstanding".
But Clarke is an exception says Nickey Brennan. Other Irish players took years to adapt to the foreign game. Some never did.
However the investment in Irish recruitment, which was once small scale, is now much grander with scouts working in a much more methodical way.
But while the operation may have grown, Ricky Nixon says "the Irish experiment" is still "very much in the embryonic stage".
Early last week Nixon, who is Managing Director of Flying Start, a sports management company, met with Nickey Brennan. Brennan has told the BBC that during that meeting Nixon explained the technology he has acquired to collate information.
"He has a particular suite of computer software where he is able to compile a database on various characteristics of players that he would see here in Ireland as capable of going into the AFL game."
"There are people involved in the GAA here in Ireland who are actively supporting and helping these agents"
But developing what Nixon describes as the necessary "initimate knowledge of the best 14-20 year olds in each of the 32 counties" still can't be easy.
"Ireland is very territorial within the counties and it is impossible to have limited part-time people scouting and know all the best players," Nixon told AFL clubs.
One way he is overcoming this problem is through the help of people who are heavily involved on the ground in Gaelic games.
Nickey Brennan acknowledged to the BBC "there are people involved in the GAA here in Ireland who are actively supporting and helping these agents to tap into knowledge about these young lads, who they are playing with and what their playing statistics are".
It is clear that the machinery is being put in place to mine the best of Irish gold.
But who cashes in? The players who fulfil their dream, those who sell them the dream, or the next team to reach AFL glory with a Gaelic protégé?
But more to the concern of Nickey Brennan, who loses out?
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