Format changes must roll on

Initially I was against the championship experiment - on the grounds of `when you're beaten, you're beaten'. But the more it went on, the more in favour of it I became.

I don't know if it would work in football but there are only 12 or 14 teams in hurling and the game needs plenty of television exposure because it needs young people to see it and want to practise it.

In a way it's amusing that despite having reached the All-Ireland after losing the Leinster final, the Offaly county board are opposed to the new championship format. Offaly themselves play a championship based on a league system and have been doing it for years.

Next Sunday Offaly children will have the opportunity to see top-class players from the county in live action. The live coverage of the camogie match on Sunday also brought the tremendous skills of the game to a wider audience than those who already appreciated the game.

One of the reasons why success is necessary to a county is that it allows youngsters in that county to be able to see the game and want to play it. This was proved by Clare and Wexford and although neither needed the benefit of the back door, the new championship sys tem has allowed other counties a share of the lime light.

Waterford are the best example. This year they have had extra matches and extra exposure and hurling in the county is bound to benefit from it. During my playing career, Limerick could have been in four extra All-Ireland semi-finals, which would have given us four extra chances.

There were other teams who would have benefited. Clare had a fabulous team in 1977 and '78 and won the League both years. Without a shadow of a doubt, they would only have got better if they had got out of Munster and played a couple of matches at Croke Park.

In those days the draw was seeded and Cork and Tipperary were on opposite sides every year. Any team wanting to win Munster generally had to beat them both. The experimental system would have helped make the game more competitive.

Interest in hurling has been phenomenal in the past two years and that interest has been encouraged by both the back door and television.

Of the other systems under consideration, the open draw - which I think will eventually come - is the fairest in that everyone starts from the same base and it gives everyone an equal chance.

The round robin doesn't appeal to me. The game is demanding enough without intensifying the load on players any further. This year, Clare had a desperately hard championship because of all the extra matches, which I believe eventually wore them down.

If this number of matches was to become the norm every year, hurling would have to go semi-professional because already employers are cribbing because fellas have to get off work.

I'm less favourable to the restructuring of the National League on a calendar-year basis. That part of the experiment hasn't worked. It's bringing the League too close to the championship and I believe a couple of matches in the autumn should be incorporated into the new season.

The problem for counties isn't so much getting matches in late spring as getting them in the summer. We haven't played since 31st May and a B championship for first-round losers would help keep the season going for counties who would otherwise be idle.

Taking into account the clubs, I believe that we are heading in the direction of elite inter-county panels whose players never play with their clubs. I'm not sure this is wise. If clubs are the basic unit of the GAA - and they're certainly the supply line for county teams - something has to be done to rationalise the inter-county championship.

I think the All-Irelands should be taken out of September and brought forward to mid-August in order to leave the whole of the autumn to club championships. It mightn't be traditional but the GAA is able to be pragmatic when it wants. The tradition of hurling finals on the first Sunday in September was changed last year.

Keeping things the way they are isn't always a good idea. The GAA had to be dragged into allowing live television and that's been hugely beneficial for the game.

A more compact championship timetable might affect overall attendances in the various provinces but there is a need to set aside vested interests and think about where the GAA is going for the next 20 years.