"The galling thing is any reasoned observer could see last Sunday coming three years ago. The teams that Cregan and Griffin had built were in obvious decline. While the Leinster championship in the '80s and '90s was as competitive and as entertaining as its much more celebrated Munster cousin, it was apparent by the summer of 2000 that the balanced, democratic nature of the province had shifted, that Kilkenny were set to dominate for the next 10 years like they had at minor the previous 10. Yet when Nickey Brennan and his Hurling Development Committee had the chance to revamp the championship, they decided that Leinster should remain intact."

Now Nickey has another chance to get it right. Not as HDC chairman, not as Leinster Council chairman, but as head honcho, GAA president. And when he finally grasps that nettle, he shouldn't stop there.

The Munster football championship is like Irish politics, back to being a two and a half party system. Connacht is considerably stronger yet only two of its teams played Division One in this year's league. It too has been dominated by an old firm, with the occasional usurper in Roscommon. Sligo might, just might, win today, but even if they do, it'll be only the third time in 90 years that either they or Leitrim won Connacht. Is that why Connacht still exists? So that Leitrim or Sligo might win it every 30 years and Roscommon might win it every 10 years?

But imagine the championship you'd have if Connacht and Munster merged. It would rival, possibly eclipse, Leinster and Ulster.

Some might argue the Limericks and Leitrims would only have even more masters to dominate them, but would their lot be any worse or more unfair than Antrim's in Ulster? As for the big boys, winning a regional title would become an achievement, not an inheritance.

It might seem a radical idea, especially to as conservative a crew as the GAA, but it's a case of adapt or die. If Kerry and Kilkenny continue to stroll to All Ireland finals on the back of only one or two testing games then there will be an even more radical revolt.

The provincial system will die.

There was a time not so long ago when we wouldn't have minded that, or to be more precise, if it was killed. But that was before Justin came to Waterford, Micko came to Laois and Paidi worked the oracle in Westmeath. Neither of those teams won the All Ireland but those titles did wonders for the general esteem of each of those counties.

Limerick won't win this year's All Ireland but they could well win today; why deprive them . . . and us . . . such a scene?

The sight of a cup brings out people and the passion in people; Westmeath have often generated bigger crowds for O'Byrne Cup finals than last-12 qualifiers. And the beauty of retaining some kind of provincial system is that teams have at least one cup to aim for each summer. As Jimmy Barry-Murphy points out in the DVD The Resurrection of Munster Hurling, 1994-2004, when Limerick, Clare and Waterford won provincial silverware in that era, "it gave those counties a sense of achievement and it was fantastic for the game in general".

From 1997 to 2004, six different Leinster football counties lifted the Delaney Cup. They had a moment to cherish because they had a cup . . . hard won as well as rightly won . . . to cherish. Only one county has flooded Croke Park after winning an All Ireland quarter-final . . . Fermanagh. Everyone (bar Kilkenny, of course, or maybe Galway in the football) invades the pitch after a provincial title.

But now there's a real danger the baby could be thrown out with the bathwater. This year Kerry had only to beat Waterford to reach the last 12. Donegal had to beat both Armagh and Tyrone to be sure of reaching the same stage. Next year three of Munster's six teams will be in Division Four. If Cork, Kerry and Limerick are all on the same side of the draw, a Division Four team will contest the last 12 of the All-Ireland series, while Armagh might be asked to negotiate three recent All Ireland semi-finalists like they were in 2005.

Ulster counties are not going to continue standing for such inequity.

In hurling, the outrage is going to be even more pronounced. Next year whoever wins the Leinster final (i. e. Kilkenny) is automatically into the All Ireland semi-final. That's the one reality that the Leinster Council and its otherwise enlightened chairman Liam O'Neill don't get . . . by virtue of the qualification status that goes with winning Leinster, the Leinster championship is not the Leinster Council's baby. It is everyone's baby, everyone's business.

Of course Kilkenny's excellence is breathtaking (no coach in the history of hurling has got his team to perform as often and as consistently as Brian Cody), and Dublin's recent underage success is encouraging, but it's hardly enough to retain a dilapidated competition. It will take a flood of such Dublin underage teams for them to be a true force at senior level. Last Sunday the Cork footballers used only two players involved in the county's recent haul of four consecutive Munster under-21 championships. That's the choice the big boys have, and still that big boy lost last Sunday.

We go back to what we wrote four years ago.

Establish a top-tier Tri-Province hurling championship featuring Galway, a Liam McCarthy-standard Ulster team, currently Antrim, and at least four Leinster teams.

Hurling then has to ask itself should the league be scrapped and the Tri-Province and Munster championships be run off on a round-robin basis and on a cross-provincial basis, or should it be run like the current championships, with three or so knock-out games deciding the make-up of its finalists?

Does the average hurling supporter really want to go to see his team four or five teams before a provincial final or is he really only bothered in going to a game or two in Thurles before the final? Is it better to have four of five crowds of 10 to 15 thousand, or two Munster semi-finals with 30,000 plus?

As for the football, the same applies. Just as three provincial councils have to pay for the sins of their fathers in not providing enough competitive elite teams in hurling, Munster and Connacht's failure to do likewise in football should see the two championships merge at senior level.

That way you'll have three 'conference' champions, who all qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals. Keep the Tommy Murphy Cup . . . the last thing Carlow needed after a tanking from Offaly was a tanking from Donegal . . . only do what Declan Browne has suggested and let its winners, and even runners-up, re-enter the All Ireland series. That way everyone has enough cups to aim for. And every cup will mean something. At the moment too few of them do.

PROPOSALS FOR NEW CHAMPIONSHIP STRUCTURE HURLING

Two conference championships . . . Munster and Tri-Province . . .run on a round-robin, crossconference basis.

Top two teams in each conference participate in that conference's final. Top-placed team has choice of venue.

Conference champions qualify for All Ireland semi-final.

Beaten finalists play thirdplaced team from other conference in All Ireland quarter-final.

Tri-Province bottom team relegated, Christy Ring champions promoted. Fifth team in Munster and fifth and sixth teams in Tri-Province enter play-off with Ring runners-up.

(See 'How It Could Work' panel, below, for how the 2009 championship might pan out. ) FOOTBALL Merge Connacht and Munster.

Retain Ulster and Leinster and Murphy Cup.

Eighteen teams go into qualifiers. Eight get bye into Round Two, priority going to those who have beaten nonDivision Four teams in the provinces (This year: Longford, Meath, Wexford, Down and Donegal), then to other earlyround winners (Louth, Derry, Leitrim). Remaining 10 sides play off.

Round Two: Round One's five winners, the eight teams with byes and Murphy Cup winners play off.

Round Three: Those seven winners and the three provincial runners-up play off.

Provincial runner-up cannot meet another.

All-Ireland quarter-final: Round Three's five winners and the three provincial champions play off. Provincial champions cannot meet another.

HOW IT COULD WORK 2009 MUNSTER CONFERENCE 1. Cork 2. Waterford 3. Limerick 4. Tipperary 5. Clare 6. Antrim 7. Westmeath 2009 TRI-PROVINCE CONFERENCE 1. Kilkenny 2. Galway 3. Dublin 4. Offaly 5. Wexford MUNSTER FINAL Cork v Waterford, Pairc Ui Chaoimh TRI-PROVINCE FINAL Kilkenny v Galway, Croke Park ALL IRELAND QUARTER-FINALS Waterford v Dublin, Kilkenny v Limerick ALL IRELAND SEMI-FINALS Cork v Kilkenny, Waterford v Galway ALL IRELAND FINAL Kilkenny v Galway