Moments like these illuminate the dullness of our otherwise mundane lives. They give both old and the very young memories to hold and cherish until the day they die... To be able to say, in years to come, 'I was there... I saw DJ's great goal that sank Galway's hopes on that August Sunday in the year 2000...'. Funnily enough, if they had been at the same Canal End at the equivalent game last year - against Clare - they must be still savouring the memory of a similar, merciless Carey goal.

Mere words on a website cannot do justice to the magical artistry of DJ Carey, so even An Fear Rua will not attempt it. You have to be there to witness it, to sense it; to feel the surge of adrenaline yourself as he reaches high into the air for the dropping pass, shrugs past his misfortunate marker, then in a twinkling of two or three steps, rifles the sliothar to the corner of the net furthest from the hapless goalkeeper. What thoughts must race through a 'keeper's mind when faced with the great DJ thundering towards his goal from, say, twenty yards out? Somewhat similar, AFR ventures to suggest, to a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car or a red-braced stockbroker playing on the margin while watching the Nasdaq heading South for the sixth or seventh successive day?

Carey's goal was the turning point of that game. He showed leadership. He stood up and was counted when it was most needed and it will take a fair Offaly defence to hold him on All Ireland Sunday. What AFR particularly liked about Carey's performance - and this has been true of him in the past as well - is that he is no prima donna of hurling: he ships punishment without complaining but he can give a hard knock too when need be. Just ask the 'hard man' of Galway's full back line, Ollie Canning. Hopefully, that decent former FCA captain, John Hynes, managing director of An Post, and the selectors of the 'Millennium Madness' hurling team were not too embarrassed witnessing the Carey performance. DJ's popularity among boys and girls of every age bracket in every corner of the thirty-two counties is phenomenal. Put it this way, if DJ's face was on one of those Millennium Team stamps, the likelihood is there would be a lot more of them sold by rural post mistresses over the coming weeks and John Hynes's coffers would have benefitted accordingly.

Looking at him in the recent Galway game was the first time An Fear Rua could see why perhaps Carey's name can now be mentioned in the same breath as Ring. Not just in the way he scored his goal and took his points. No, more so in the cobra-like way Ring would pounce devastatingly and a team that thought they were coasting to an easy victory over Cork once more found themselves on the abyss of defeat. That was Carey against Galway.

A GAA star, then, no question. DJ himself would probably argue that he should have the opportunity to gain some material reward for himself and his family from his stardom. And, An Fear Rua would wholeheartedly agree. The current debate over the GPA/Marlborough deal and the wider payment/reward issues for players is not about whether players should be rewarded, but how.

But that's the easy part. No problem in recognising star quality when we encounter it. The bigger problem lies in recognising what makes a GAA 'star'. Unquestionably, it starts with a God-given gift of skill at either hurling or football. Very probably, there is a huge hereditary disposition towards this, since many of the same surnames pop up generation after generation. How often many of us lesser mortals have wondered why we missed out when the Deity was parcelling out his gifts?

Then there is the practice, the practice, and the practice. All of the 'greats' - Ring, the Rackards, the Doyles - tell stories of first taking a hurley in their hands at the age of two or three and practising for hours one end - often alone - belting a ball against a barn door or even in a handball alley. School plays a big part. In the Déise, for example, the famous Ballygunner club of today was almost single-handedly the creation in the Fifties of a dedicated National Teacher, the late Jimmy McGing, God rest his noble soul. 'Christian' Brothers the length and breadth of Ireland gave umpteen hours of their time after classes coaching and developing teams. We all know how Offaly's success may be traced to the arrival in Birr Vocational College of the Corkman, Brother Declan, in the early Seventies. Family, too, plays a role. Tipp's All Star, Tomás Dunne, tells great stories of the sacrifices made by his parents driving him and his brothers every weekend to under-age games throughout the Premier County. Only this week, AFR witnessed the scores of parents dropping off their kids to a Leinster GAA football summer camp in the county of Meath. Usually along the way, there is someone - a coach, a manager or a retired player - who takes an interest in the developing player and shares their hard-won knowledge and insights with them. Luck plays a part too. Born in the wrong parish or in the wrong county at the wrong time and no matter how talented a player is, they may miss out on fame and glory because in the end, it takes a team to achieve results.

All these elements are by way of reminding us all - not least the Great DJ Himself - that many people go into the making of a GAA 'star'. OK, from to time, we hear gibes about certain 'ofeeshals' 'only being in it for what they can get out of it'. But the vast majority of GAA players, officials, mentors and administrators are involved solely because they love and enjoy the games and they want to help others share in that enjoyment. At parish and county level they toil selflessly, without reward and often without thanks. It is a fundamental error to equate the GAA with professional, moneymaking British soccer clubs, for example, where many of those in power have never touched a football in their lives, could barely describe the offside rule and whose only real interest is profit. Guys who are more interested in 'the bottom line' than the goal line. One of the distinctive strengths of the GAA is that so many of its administrators and officials were themselves once, not just adequate or good players, but often stars in their own right. The only thing that separates them from the players of today is advancing age and even GPA members are not immune from the ravages of time!

So, if a GAA 'star' is entitled to financial rewards, how do we separate out the bits that really belong solely to the player's efforts from all the other bits added over the years by parents, family, teachers, coaches, mothers who drive teams to underage matches, men and women who run clubs, county boards, provincial associations, groundskeepers, score board keepers, programme sellers etc? The answer is we can't and Donal O'Neill with his GPA Public Relations cunning stunts is not going to come up with a formula, nor does he want to.

The only fair way to do this is to recognise the fundamental nature of 'Dis Great Assosheeayshun Of Ours' - that the GAA is a vast, non-profitmaking, amateur sporting association and therefore all money coming into it from any source should be 'divvied' up between 'star' players, other players, injured players and the relevant county board.