The hurling itself wasn't bad either. In fact, it was terrific. Without a shadow of a doubt, this has been the best championship in living memory.

Sure, there have been structural flaws, most notably semi-final pairings that should not have been allowed to happen. But the All Ireland series has been a rollercoaster ride, which is surely what we should want. For interest's sake, keep an eye on how the Rugby World Cup unfolds from the quarter-final stage onwards. Bet it won't surpass the treats we've witnessed in Croke Park since late July.

Let's consider the forgotten while they're fresh in our minds. If Galway's year was neither a success nor a disaster, at least Ger Loughnane will enter his second season as manager in a more knowledgeable position about his charges; this should manifest itself in 2008. The same goes for John Meyler, who will surely have a much different Wexford panel next year. Cork will be back, it's only a question of when. Waterford too will be back to light up more summers, while the recent underage success of Tipperary should bring silverware at senior level in the not-too-distant future.

Unfortunately Clare's short-term future does not look anywhere near as promising. What has gone on in the Banner county this year defies logic.

Part of it was due to a massive systems failure in the relationship between the county board and the team management. You have to feel sorry for everyone involved, for no group or individual should be exposed to the hassle and interference suffered. At the end of the day, they're all Clare men and all GAA men.

Surely now proper guidance and training must be provided by Croke Park to ensure that county boards are equipped to cope with the complex demands placed on them. When you see 38m being allocated to fund developments, you have to wonder if the boards are capable of dealing efficiently with their manifold tasks. Unless a framework of proper checks and balances is introduced, the Clare fiasco will be played out in more counties and people with lots to offer will be put off becoming involved with intercounty teams.

On the flipside of the coin, Limerick, the basket case of hurling for the past number of years, have at last lit a torch for others to follow. Hopefully they will. Dublin, who beat Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds during the National League, had a highly encouraging season under Tommy Naughton, who must be allowed to continue the good work he's already done, and are Leinster champions in minor and under-21 in the same year for the first time.

Westmeath, with the great Johnny Dooley in the backroom, won the Ring Cup for the second time in three years, beating Kildare, who with continuing commitment can make further progress. Dublin offers the underage template for its neighbours, and with the road network around the capital it should be possible to hold amalgamated underage competitions involving clubs in Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. If the hurling folk in these areas unite, all boats would be raised over time.

It's encouraging to learn that a special congress to streamline the running of the league and championship has been called for October. The gathering must not dilute the championship by settling on some kind of anaemic middle ground that suits the strongest counties with the loudest voices. This, which has always been the case, is a clear and present danger.

Look at what Congress last April agreed to: reintroduce automatic passage to the All Ireland semifinals for the Munster and Leinster champions and thereby scale back the last-eight competition that gave us so much intrigue this year. Meet the halfflawed new system. Same as the flawed old system.

And look at the summer Dublin enjoyed, with three outings in the qualifiers, two of them against Cork and Tipperary in front of large attendances at Parnell Park. Good venue, good opponents, good games, good for Dublin, good for hurling. Yet under the proposals passed at Congress, Dublin may be reduced to two games next summer, neither of them at Parnell Park: so also Offaly and Laois.

Bad for Offaly and Laois, bad for hurling.

Dublin have a group of talented under-21s who are on the brink of making the senior panel if they haven't already done so. Offaly, the county that gave us arguably the team of the 1990s, took a couple of steps forward with a young team this season. Both sets of players, who are in mortal danger of being cast aside by the Congress-approved system, cannot be allowed to drift away. This is a case not so much of "build it and they will come" as "don't provide and they will go". With so many other opportunities available to them, young people today won't hang around for the promise of old men's jam tomorrow.

The old elitist system did little to create new hurling powers. The present system, with its qualifiers and four All Ireland quarter-finals, will over time create them. Striking the appropriate balance between club and intercounty activities is crucial. Reducing the emphasis on the intercounty scene would not be a good solution and would lead eventually to the lowering of standards at all levels.

There is ample scope for streamlining the manner in which counties organise their hurling and football competitions; all that's needed is vision and will, new days and new ways. By looking at the National League and championship as a unit and making appropriate amendments, we can readjust the balance to get it right. The ever-thoughtful Pat Critchley and his friends are formulating a concept that incorporates the league and all three championships, an idea of considerable merit.

Additional floodlit all-weather pitches and a resolve to play more club fixtures in midweek would solve a lot of problems. How about an intercounty season and a club season, a football season and a hurling season? It can be done. Let's hear what the players . . . club as well as intercounty . . . have to say on the subject.

Hurling lives in hope and expectation. Right now is a good time for the game. There are indications that we are starting to move in the right direction on what will unquestionably be a long road filled with obstacles and detractors. But let's hope we manage to hang on to the thrills and the spills, the bust-ups and the dust-ups, the tears, the jeers, the Loughnanes, the Babses and the rest. In fact, let's hope we never lose them.

(PS At the risk of exercising this particular hobbyhorse to death, it would be great for hurling's image if both teams discard their helmets for the pre-match parade. )