May her soul smile in the embrace of her anam cara.

We go on. The provincial championships and the qualifying series are over; next weekend the All Ireland championship begins. What's shaping up as a fascinating eight-team knockout competition, at the end of which the McCarthy Cup winners for 2007 will be revealed, is about to unfold. Enjoy it while you can, folks - it won't exist next year.

I know I'm biased on this one, but indulge me anyway. The previous Hurling Development Committee introduced the concept of a championship with four All Ireland quarter-finals, beginning in 2005. It was new, it was fresh, it was different and it's worked.

Now it's about to be scrapped.

Just look at what we're going to miss.

Next Sunday Croke Park will host a mouthwatering double bill that features not one but two . . . Clare versus Limerick and Cork versus Waterford - local derbies, with all the accompanying emotions, passions and old scores, real or imagined. All four teams will justifiably feel they can win. Saturday sees Tipperary and Wexford meet in the championship for the first time in six years before Brian Cody's Kilkenny and Ger Loughnane's Galway take the field for a contest that's almost certain to make strong men quake.

Sadly, under the proposals recommended by the current HDC and passed at Congress last April, the old system, which handed the Munster and Leinster champions a bye into the All Ireland semi-finals, will be back in force next year. It's a lopsided system, a system that didn't serve hurling well in the past and will not serve it well in the future. One step forward by one HDC, two steps backward by the next HDC.

Yes, I'm biased. I'm also convinced I'm right. The scrapping of two of the quarter-finals will in time come to be seen as a retrograde step for hurling. Believe it.

At least Kilkenny and Galway have given us something to look forward to.

Saturday's feature event is a hugely intriguing prospect. More lines have been written in 2007 about Galway and their new manager than about any other county and theirs. It was never going to be any different, of course.

One factor that ratchets up the interest level still further is the fact that Galway haven't yet sparkled. The entire hurling world knows that they're well capable of doing so. Now, sitting at the counter in the last chance saloon, they have to, otherwise the lights go out.

It could be that Galway are just about to burst into life. Their win last weekend against Antrim, who had been improving, carried hints of such a possibility. To hit 2-31, as the winners did, was quite an achievement, regardless of the fact that Antrim were reduced to 14 men during the first half. What's more, Alan Kerins, Kerill Wade, Niall Healy, Iarla Tannian and Kevin Broderick all hit four points or more apiece, a development that has to be classed as a confidence-booster.

Galway will not fear Kilkenny the way some other counties would. They might have been apprehensive about facing them in Thurles, where they lost heavily to them in 2004 and again last year, but not in Croke Park, where they beat them in 2001 and 2005. It was no surprise that Loughnane was making noise early in the week that the game had to be held in Croke Park. He got his wish. Now his players, most of whom know from their underage days what it's like to beat Kilkenny, have to deliver.

The Antrim forwards managed 1-1 from play in Salthill. The Galway backs will meet six horses of a different colour on Saturday, naturally, not least in the shape of Henry Shefflin and Martin Comerford, who gave the Wexford backs a torrid time in the Leinster final and between them created the platform for Willie O'Dwyer to bang home the goals that ended the game as a contest inside 15 minutes. But Galway have a bigger and stronger backline than Wexford and should be better able to cope with the aerial threat of the titleholders.

Coming to grips with Kilkenny's interchanging, particularly that of Shefflin and Comerford, will be the key.

Elsewhere the underdogs will need a plan to unhinge a defence powered by Noel Hickey, Tommy Walsh and Brian Hogan, who has produced some good displays of late. Therein lies the difference between the reigning champions and most of their challengers. Players of All Star calibre who get injured in Kilkenny often fail to regain their place.

Their most dangerous opponent is not a guy from another county, it's the guy beside them in the dressing room.

Brian Cody will crack up if a Galway side that have shown no real form beat his boys. He'll go crazy if he has to congratulate his former college team-mate Loughnane at the final whistle. Galway and Loughnane fascinate us because we feel that something big might happen at any minute. But apart from the second half against Antrim, there are few signs to suggest they'll unseat the McCarthy Cup holders.

Wexford enter the curtain-raiser in much the same way that Tipperary entered their qualifier against Cork last night week. What happened next was instructive. Tipp appeared to decide that enough was enough and that it was time to perform. They did so.

Willie Ryan's first goal put the bit between their teeth and they refused to let it go. Their backs were very good, even if Cork missed Niall McCarthy's physical presence. Eamon Corcoran was outstanding, as always.

Conor O'Mahony, who may have been undermined by Benny Dunne being handed the shirt for the first Limerick match, will surely be left at number six from now on. Dunne himself prospered in attack, as did Seamus Butler and Hugh Maloney at midfield. Lar Corbett and John Carroll showed real leadership in the absence of Eoin Kelly, which as it transpired was a blessing in disguise.

Suddenly Tipp look a different team.

This is Wexford's opportunity to copy Tipp's example and turn things around.

Although careful to avoid the trap of dismissing John Meyler's team, Babs understandably couldn't wipe the smile off his face last Saturday night. Much as Wexford might pretend to disagree, this is the soft end of the draw.

Losing to Kilkenny wasn't disturbing. Capitulating to them most certainly was. Let's not have any Wexford manager ever again forced to apologise for an abject defeat the way John Meyler (left) was three weeks ago. Damien Fitzhenry, one of Wexford's greatest and most loyal players, captains the side now. All of the players owe him 100 per cent support.

Natives of Slaneyside are not demanding a win here but they do expect, and they're correct to expect, a manful performance from every man in the purple and gold. To that extent, there's a responsibility on the Wexford players. I hope they realise that.

Finally, congratulations to Dublin on their Leinster under-21 triumph during the week to add to their minor silverware of a fortnight previously. Hard work bears fruit. The rest of the province should take note.

Wexford can take heart here as Dublin beat them by one point in the semi-final in Parnell Park - and more heart from their Intermediate Hurlers' victory over Kilkenny in Nowlan Park.