Year to crown a decade of liberation

Amidst the search for millennial significance - even within the GAA - it shouldn't be forgotten that this year's Guinness hurling championship brings to an end a memorable decade. There has been more variety to the 1990s than to any other decade since the 1910s when eight different counties won the All-Ireland. With a year to go this decade, the figure is six.

Remarkably, given that the game's aristocracy won the first four, the 1990s have also featured the lowest total of All-Irelands for Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary. Should any of them win the coming championship, they will equal the previous low of five, but currently have managed only four between them.

It has been a notably barren spell for the decade's first champions Cork, who three years ago lost their long-standing unbeaten home record in spectacular fashion to Limerick and are now three quarters of the way to the 12 years which stands as their longest stretch without a title in modern times.

At least they have won once this decade. Galway and Limerick have been the big losers, each suffering two final defeats and unlike other finalists during the period - Tipperary, Kilkenny, Cork and Offaly - didn't manage to win a title.

Galway suffered the setback with two distinct teams - the first which had the winning of the 1990 final and the second which should have developed further - and continued to disappoint for much of the decade. Limerick were more of a heartbreak.

Pipped by four minutes of dazzling hurling in the 1994 final, they returned two years later and blazed a fiery trail through Munster, destroying Cork in their backyard, coming up on the inside to touch off Clare on an epic afternoon in the Gaelic Grounds and pulling Tipperary back from a 10-point lead in the Munster final before winning the replay. Yet Wexford proved an insurmountable obstacle in the All-Ireland final.

Principally the decade will be remembered as a success story for Clare, with two titles, although it is not an exclusive tally. Kilkenny have a similar strike-rate, achieved back-to-back titles and also reached two other finals. Offaly also won two All-Irelands, although they can probably regard the decade as slightly tinged with under-achievement in the light of a poor display when losing to Clare in the '95 final and the fact that they went down only in the face of Wexford's best performance of the decade in the following year's Leinster final.

Clare, however, defined the years when hurling became box office. Their huge support and the long years since the county had experienced even provincial success created an atmosphere of public anticipation and, combined with Guinness's smart advertising campaign and the advent of live television coverage, the game's attendances rocketed.

Wexford joined the party in 1996 and in many ways the response was more tumultuous. Clare had celebrated winning their first Munster title since 1932 with more delirium than they did the All-Ireland which followed in September 1995. For Wexford, the All-Ireland was something more tangible. People in their thirties could remember the previous victory and those in their forties could remember when the county ruled the world.

Recapturing what you've lost is often sweeter than gaining what you've never had.

The emergence of Clare, Wexford and, to a more limited extent, Waterford a year ago has been the most obvious phenomenon of the four years since the Guinness sponsorship began, but the championship itself has also changed dramatically.

Last October's special congress in Rosslare accepted for a further four years the reforms that have been in place over the last two seasons - primarily the admission to the All-Ireland series of both finalists in Leinster and Munster.

At this stage the dust has settled on the experiment and it is possible to see ways in which it can affect the actual outcome of the championship. Offaly last year proved how the system can become part of a strategy. It was undoubtedly unwitting on their part, but any team who gets the opportunity to cruise through the provincial finals can then crank themselves up for six weeks furious hurling.

It's possible but not necessarily to be recommended. For a start a team needs a handy draw in the provincial semi-final, one which offers a reasonable chance of progress without the need to hit top gear. At the same time, no side wants to lose a provincial final and there has been no suggestion of dissimulation in the two Leinster and Munster finals to date.

That, however, may change, not so much through teams throwing matches but because they realise they don't have to peak for the provincial final and may wish to gradate their preparations with August in mind.

Secondly, the right quarter-final draw cannot be guaranteed. A team doesn't find out until after losing the provincial final who their opponents will be. Whereas a case can be made that Galway have proved as pliant as the Ulster champions in the last two years, that won't necessarily hold on an annual basis.

Thirdly, the business of raising and lowering performance levels is a risky one. There is no precedent in the history of the GAA's championships for teams being able to plan campaigns on the basis that one match can be lost along the way. Offaly did it unwittingly, but most managers would be wary of turning form on and off.