No relief from the gloom which has welled up in the world of hurling since the disastrous Leinster semi-finals. Sunday's final wasn't Kilkenny's fault; they did what they had to and they are the saving grace of the province rather than a tyrannical presence which is choking the development of the game in the rest of Leinster.

Brian Cody cited John Power's post-match comments, to the effect that Kilkenny value Leinster titles, as the main reason why the county would never be tempted to lengthen the runway for All-Ireland take-off - a suspicion which has hovered over Offaly in recent times.

Throughout the last century, other counties - Dublin, Wexford and Offaly - have stepped forward to act as the main opposition in the province. The problem now is that there doesn't appear to be a credible challenger and that the scale of Kilkenny's superiority is, even in historical terms, quite worrying.

You don't have to go back very far to find the benchmark. The 1970s were the last period of competitive crisis for Leinster hurling. Kilkenny won seven of the provincial titles - against an historical norm of taking on average five or six of the titles in any given decade.

Furthermore, every Leinster final of the 1970s featured Wexford and Kilkenny. Between 1971 and 1975, Kilkenny won five successive titles. In fairness they can be seen as an exceptional team and weren't far off winning an unprecedented five-in-a-row All-Irelands. Instead they managed three in four years.

Yet, in the midst of this period of national prominence, Kilkenny were still being put through their paces by Wexford. At no stage did they win two successive finals by double-digit margins, as has happened in the past two years. In fact, the heaviest defeat was inflicted on Kilkenny when, as All-Ireland champions, they got trimmed by 17 points in the 1976 final.

There are two points at issue here. One is the repetition of the same pairing in a provincial final over a few years, which suggests competitive stagnation; and the other is the same county winning by expanding margins.

In the past, Kilkenny have managed many three-in-a-rows in the province, but if you check how often this has been achieved against the same opposition, the answer is that last weekend was only the fourth occasion - after the 1970s (against Wexford), 1945-47 (against Dublin) and 1903-05 (also against Dublin). All these nagging indicators come when Kilkenny have monopolised the minor championship for 10 years.

It's all something of a hard landing in the light of the recent past. Leinster provided three different All-Ireland champions in four years in the mid-1990s, an unparalleled achievement for the province and one which emulated Munster in 1946-49 (Cork, Waterford and Tipperary) and 1970-73 (Cork, Tipperary, Limerick).

The years which followed merited the talk of hurling's golden age. There were record crowds at the Leinster semi-finals and the matches were genuinely competitive, with Dublin and Laois each rising to the occasion in successive years when playing Kilkenny.

Meanwhile, the Munster championship was experiencing its own revolution. There were all sorts of records being set with Cork and Tipp in decline and getting knocked out of the championship.

It can be said that it's unfair to get all rheumy-eyed over Limerick and Clare doing well and declare it a golden age, only to start calling crisis as soon as the old order re-asserts itself. There is, however, a rationale behind such attitudes. When the likes of Limerick and Clare are enjoying success, there is little chance that hurling in Cork and Tipp is going to shrivel up.

The reverse, however, doesn't hold, and there will be an anxious wait to see how well Limerick, Clare and Waterford get on with rebuilding programmes.

In such uncertain times, the awkward question of the future of the provincial championships has to arise. At present there are two strong reasons why the status quo is failing hurling.

Firstly, the knockout format is increasingly being seen as unsatisfactory because of the consequent lack of matches for players and supporters. This is a well-rehearsed argument and there's no need to go into it again here.

Secondly, the arrangement of counties into provincial championships is plainly nonsensical. Munster is very competitive and Leinster is not. Connacht's limited championship has collapsed and Ulster, although robustly competitive as Derry's breakthrough has demonstrated, struggles to play a meaningful role in the All-Ireland series.

Being trapped in an uncompetitive province does not benefit any team. Kilkenny would surely have preferred a more demanding test last Sunday before they retire to await Tipperary or Galway. Then there are the stark disparities in the current system. To win an All-Ireland this year, Tipperary will have to beat Waterford, Clare, Galway, Kilkenny and Cork or Offaly.

It may be to Tipperary's disadvantage given the lighter schedule of their likely opponents, but it is a highly attractive programme of matches and gives a hint of the sort of fixtures which could be enjoyed if all counties had to play a similar series. A league-based format leading on to knockout semi-finals would also address the problems of counties struggling to compete. Derry are evidence of the benefits of playing higher-quality opposition, even during the current league with its soft pitches and changeable weather.

Offaly in their time benefited from being placed in Division One for the purposes of sharpening their game. Were counties able to play a number of matches in summer conditions, their hurling would benefit in the long term. The experience of Dublin as winners of the roundrobin in getting hammered by Kilkenny shouldn't be seen as a rebuttal of the concept.

Dublin need to play the best teams in the best weather before they can hope to acclimatise. When the county last came within a length of breaking through, 10 years ago, it was noticeable that by the second year, 1991, the team had built on the achievements of the first and came close to beating Kilkenny in the Leinster final.

Unfortunately, a team needs more than two top-class matches a year if it's to improve. And all teams need more top-class matches if the championship is to improve.