As we all know, no such pact or campaign was initiated, be it out of arrogance, naivety, short-sightedness or just the presumption and knowledge Croke Park would be indifferent to the winners' plight.

Whatever, as a result of such inaction, we smacked down 100 at 7/2 on a LimerickKilkenny final.

The following Sunday we were wishing we never had.

Cork, despite reminding us for much of that game why they've been one of the great teams of the modern era, were overwhelmed by an irresistible force. Leaving Croke Park that day we were certain that nothing . . . not even fatigue or a ravenous, rested Limerick team . . . was going to deny Waterford this year.

But ultimately our initial hunch was right. Fatigue and a ravenous, rested Limerick team did prove too much, even for these Waterford warriors.

Last Monday we collected our winnings . . . with a heavy heart.

Just like thousands of neutrals throughout the land, there was a gnawing feeling in our soul, the gnawing and knowing sense that Waterford had been 'had'.

That is not Limerick's fault.

They were fantastic last Sunday, just as they have been all summer. They have the best full-back line in the championship, bravehearts throughout the team and, in Richie Bennis, a manager whose smile and general bonhomie were exactly what hurling itself, not just Limerick hurling, needed. There should be no asterisk beside the performance and result they garnered last Sunday because even Waterford . . . or anyone else . . . at full tilt would have struggled to beat them . . . just as Waterford did in the Munster final. Unfortunately there is that asterisk.

In the aftermath of last Sunday's match, several commentators referred to Limerick "wanting it more". It wasn't that Limerick wanted it more; it was that they had more to give. Complacency had little to do with it; it was an energy issue. Limerick were fully replenished for this game, their energy levels at 100 percent. Waterford, after the epic Cork series, were working off only 85 percent.

Against Wexford . . . who they should have been playing . . . or Clare or Offaly it would have been enough. But not against Kilkenny. Not against a rested Cork. And not against as physical a side as Limerick who attacked with the fury and conviction of knowing they were facing, to borrow a phrase of Nicky English's, "wounded animals". A few minutes into the match, when Limerick's lead was only two points, we texted a friend, "I'm exhausted just watching Waterford playing again.

What must it be like playing for them again?"

Of course, there's an argument that no one forced Waterford to take two games to see off Cork. But you try beating Cork (four times in one year, actually), the only Munster side of the last 60 years to reach four consecutive All Ireland finals. You try stopping them going for that fifth final. That was not an ordinary quarter-final, highlighted by the fact its replay topped an All Ireland semifinal on the bill. These were not ordinary circumstances.

And yet the GAA acted with complete indifference.

The real issue though isn't so much whenWaterford had to play Limerick but that Waterford had to play Limerick. We say this with the advantage of foresight, not hindsight; in 2004, when the old HDC's proposals were ratified, this newspaper highlighted its failure to safeguard against repeat fixtures in the interests of novelty and fairness. It was an unintended oversight by the old HDC, yet it was never redressed by the new HDC chaired by Ned Quinn.

Waterford, it has to be said, have previously been the beneficiaries of this anomaly. In 2005 it was unfair on Cork to have to play them in an All Ireland quarter-final having beaten them in Munster; ditto Tipperary having to play them again in 2006. Do you know how tough it is to beat a team of that calibre once? The tactical energy you expend, the hand you're revealing to the opposition? No team should feel foolish for beating another team in the provincial championship, yet that's what's constantly happened after repeat fixtures in the backdoor.

Inevitably there will be some repeat fixtures, but, through protection . . . like there used to be . . . they should be kept to a minimum, especially given the poverty of competition in Leinster hurling.

The championship has been devalued as a result. We keep on hearing 2007 has been a great hurling championship.

Wrong. It's been a great year for hurling but we've only had a great Munster championship, twice . . . one in Munster, the other in Croke Park. This summer there have been eight cracking all-Munster ties; the rest have offered only one cracker (the now under-rated Kilkenny-Galway clash), two entertaining if sub-standard games (Tipp-Offaly and TippWexford) and a curiosity (Galway-Clare).

Even Kilkenny's greatness has been devalued by this maladministration. Because great they are. In the last six years under Cody, we can think of only one championship match, possibly two, that they've failed to bring either their A or B game to. No manager in hurling history has demonstrated a greater propensity to get his team to enter what sport psychologists call the peak performance state as Cody has. But just like Kerry so often this past 10 years, some of their All Irelands have been validated by what they did in the league more than what they did in the summer.

Leave aside the perennial debate about revamping Leinster or scrapping the Leinster championship; in this year's semi-final, it should have been Kilkenny getting a load of Limerick and a ferocity strikingly similar to that which Galway unleashed on Cody's Cats at the same juncture in 2001 and 2005.

It's a cliche now to say a Waterford All Ireland win would be great for hurling. It would be great for Waterford;

Waterford have already been great for hurling, doing for the Guinness championship this decade what Munster have to the Heineken Cup.

Failing to reach the final will gall them but regardless of what happens on 2 September, they've been one of the country's top two teams of 2007, the loser of that day being its third.

As we said before the Munster final, there's a difference between being a side that has won a championship and a championship team.

Northampton won a European rugby championship but they never became a championship team. Zach Johnson has won a Major but is not yet a Major player. Waterford have not yet won an All Ireland championship but this year, after winning the league, after winning Munster, after how they saw off Cork in Croke Park, they have proved themselves a championship team.

On the eve of the 1996 Tour de France, its director, Jean Marie Leblanc, expressed regret that there were too many mountain stages in the Sean Kelly era and that it was a greater indictment on Le Tour itself than on Kelly that such a great cyclist never won it. Something similar could be said about some other Waterford men who may never adorn their sport's biggest stage. They were great. Just too many mountains.