After delegates at yesterday's Special Congress unanimously voted in favour of the seventh change to the hurling championship in the past 12 years, GAA President Christy Cooney called on counties to try and find a structure agreeable to all.

Speaking at Croke Park yesterday afternoon, Cooney said, "Are we going to have promotion and relegation into the future? We have to make a decision on that. It needs to be in the interest of moving hurling forward for the association and that it is right for the association and that we are not going to be coming along in the future chopping and changing willy nilly for the sake of doing that."

Yesterday's decision means that 13 teams will compete for the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2010, including this years Christy Ring Cup winners Carlow. Tiers two and three will both have eight-team structures, with last year's Nicky Rackard champions Meath and Lory Meagher Cup winners Tyrone both promoted. However there were calls from Monaghan to be demoted to the Meagher Cup for 2010 as they felt they were unable to compete successfully in the Nicky Rackard Cup. The Farney County failed to win a game in the tier three competition this year.

But after some debate and the assurance that they could bring this as a motion to GAA Congress next April in Newcastle, Down, the amendment was withdrawn.

Meanwhile Cooney hasn't ruled out the possibility of an open-draw system and the scrapping of the provincial championships during his term of office. "That's another days work and I know Brian Cody and a number of people have been commenting on it in the last couple of days as to whether or not we should go for an open senior hurling championship. That's not something that has come up for discussion, it might come up as part of the consultation process and if it does we will listen to what counties will have to say."

Meanwhile a motion in relation to extra-time was also unanimously adopted. This means that procedures on extra-time have now been clarified. Players who receive yellow cards in normal time will have these carried over to extra-time, while it will be left up to the committee in charge to decide prior to the start of a competition if a game ends in a draw whether or not extra-time will be played.