The idea of seedings, which has been there in the past, was again suggested at a Munster Council meeting . . . namely that the Munster finalists would be seeded for the coming year in both hurling and football. That was a decision that the representatives could not take on the night, so they went back to their counties, were mandated and we came back again and had a vote on the matter.

There is no big deal or big secret about any of it and there's been a lot of rubbish talked since.

Not that I see a problem with other systems, but nobody gives out about the fact that Leinster have a seeded draw in hurling. In the Leinster football championship, the four semi-finalists avoid the first round the following year. That has actually been going on for quite some time now and there has not been a word about it. So why all the fuss about this?

Some will respond by saying Munster football is weak but yesterday Munster football showed just how strong it is with a superb performance, beating Leinster in the semifinal of the Railway Cup without many Kerry players and with nobody from Limerick, Clare or Tipperary. In fact, we only had 20 players and here was an opportunity for Limerick players to play with Munster and they were deprived of that opportunity by people from within the county.

I do not think it was a county board decision taken to prevent the players from joining up with the squad, rather it was a move made by personnel within the county. Now what is the logic of that? It is a great honour to play for your province. It is supposed to be about the best available players from within that province lining up side by side and getting to play with the best available players from other counties. There is no Limerick man that wouldn't want that honour and the same can be said for the other five counties. As chairman, I want the best team possible and that would have included Limerick players so what has happened was sad to see.

And all this happened needlessly because people seem to think this is some great conspiracy here, that there was an agenda or some ploy and all this was carried out without anyone having a say.

We had a vote and you don't go with the minority I am afraid. Now, I don't know if seeding will benefit the weaker counties or not. It was just the feeling of the meeting that this was the way to go. If you ask me, the two strongest teams will always show up in a final no matter what and if a team is good enough to be in that top two then they will be in the Munster final.

The other criticism I have heard a lot recently is that if Kerry and Cork do find themselves in a Munster final they will progress to the latter stages of the All Ireland series. People say it will happen this year: the Munster winners go through to an All Ireland quarter-final having played just one meaningful game and the Munster final losers go through to the last 12 having won no meaningful game. People are then pointing to Ulster and Leinster and looking at the paths teams from those provinces have to take. Well firstly, there is no such thing as a meaningless game in the championship. And secondly, structures that exists outside Munster are neither my business nor my concern.

But returning to Munster, it's not like this is a decision that is going to last forever. If certain people in certain counties have a problem with this they just need go along and get their counties to change it next year because that is the way we work. We have a vote every year to select the championship format. It just takes a simple vote to change things back.

This is proof that there has been a huge overreaction.