One that provides a level playing field must always be the objective, though.

I know. I was a member of the Hurling Development Committee for three years during Sean Kelly's presidency of the GAA.

We looked at different proposals. We examined new ways of thinking. We talked till the cows come home. In the end we initiated the Ring and Rackard Cups for the second-flight and third-flight counties, an innovation I think we can be proud of. What we didn't manage to come up with was a McCarthy Cup competition that ticked all the right boxes. Then again, I'm not sure we could have. To repeat, there's no such thing as the perfect hurling championship.

This, along with the fact that I'm a former member of the body myself, is the reason I can't be too harsh in criticising the proposals the HDC are bringing to Congress next weekend. I've no problem in saying this much, however.

The suggested emasculation of the All Ireland quarter-final stage is in my view a retrograde step. What's more, if it's agreed to stick with the latest proposals for a number of years, we may never have four quarter-finals again. And that would be a shame.

The biggest obstacle for the HDC was, as always, the lack of credible contenders in hurling. Munster has strength in depth;

Leinster used to have but doesn't at the moment; Connacht has only one county that hurls to a high standard; and no Ulster county has ever won the All Ireland. This is the reality. This is the circle that cannot be fully and truly squared. One priority the Pat Dunny-chaired HDC I sat on was very conscious of was the need to hang onto the baby while getting rid of much of the bathwater. I'm talking primarily here about the Munster championship, which is not only a great hurling competition but is also the GAA's most vibrant provincial championship in either code. Leave the Munster championship well alone, we decided.

But how could we make the Leinster championship better? If we could succeed there, then hurling would have three excellent championships:

Munster, Leinster and an All Ireland series with four quarter-finals. Galway's refusal to cross the Rubicon and participate in Leinster not only scuppered that one but also forced us to cater specifically for their needs by coming up with a round-robin qualifying system that I don't mind admitting contained too many meaningless matches.

The current HDC, under the chairmanship of my old classmate Ned Quinn, has redesigned the qualifiers, tightened them up and made them more immediately meaningful. Although the beaten Munster and Leinster semi-finalists come back in as before, this time they don't get a prolonged series of second bites at the cherry. That's good. So too is the recommendation to move next season to a National League featuring a nine-team Division 1, with each of the top counties playing four home and four away fixtures. Very sensible. One problem though, if it had been ten teams, it would have avoided one free team each round.

What isn't so good is that all of the previous HDC's work and all of the current HDC's work is brought about because one county has the power of veto over every other county and the entire competition.

Madness. What also isn't so good to my way of thinking is the express ticket to the All Ireland semi-finals the HDC propose giving the Munster and Leinster champions. This return to tradition would entail reducing the number of All Ireland quarter-finals from four, as applied in 2005 and 2006, to two. Wild horses couldn't drag me to agree that this is a progressive step.

Think back to last year's All Ireland quarter-finals. Waterford and Tipperary produced a fine contest on the Sunday in Croke Park; the previous evening, Cork v Limerick and Kilkenny v Galway were games that, while not classics, provided lots of talking points.

Now think back to 2005.

Cork v Waterford was a splendid match, as was Galway v Tipperary, while Kilkenny v Limerick at least kept the attention. The only bad note each year was the Clare/Wexford mismatch. But two bad games out of eight is not much to complain about, especially as hurling's profile had been heightened by the very introduction of four All Ireland quarter-finals . . . important when the sport has a notable shortage of big occasions in the first place. Having eight teams contest four quarterfinals is entirely logical and sensible. Remember that system is the only one we have had in the entire history of the game where eight top counties competed on a level playing field for the McCarthy Cup.

It's the way things are done the world over and now we are going to unravel it. It's the way the GAA operates in football, remember. Allowing the Munster and Leinster hurling champions safe passage to the All Ireland semi-finals is a vestige of the past we should be prepared to cast off. It also militates against counties who win provincial championships, moreover; Waterford as Munster champions were caught cold by Clare and Kilkenny coming through the back door in the 2002 and 2004 All Ireland semi-finals respectively, as were the 2004 Leinster champions Wexford by Cork.

Thoughtful as always, Sean Moran pointed out recently in The Irish Times that automatic semi-final places benefit the established counties, a state of affairs that the recent system was introduced to counter. "Why should the provincial championships, only one of which is truly competitive, distort the fairest way to decide the All Ireland?" he asked. Precisely.

And yes, it's only fair that the Munster and Leinster champions should receive some sort of reward under a system that features four All Ireland quarter-finals. But as it is, they already do because they get to face the runners-up from the two qualifying groups rather than the beaten finalists from the other province.

If counties give the green light to the HDC proposals next weekend, they'll unravel the best parts of the current system for the sake of making the likes of Kilkenny (who didn't look for this) and Cork play one match fewer. Forgive me if I fail to grasp either the logic or the justice of that. Let's try and keep the playing field as level as we can.

Talking of Kilkenny, Nowlan Park is the venue today for two interesting League quarter-finals. Wexford have made good strides in recent weeks and have become competitive in the league again. Galway will start favourites, but I believe Wexford can put it up to them. The outcome in the second match depends on which Waterford turn up. Tipp have improved since last year and look the safer bet.