THE last week has been a significant one for the National Hurling League. This bears no relation to any of the weekend's results which, apart from condemning Laois to relegation and guaranteeing Dublin promotion, didn't resolve any of the playing issues.

In the wider context of the GAA's experiment with the calendar year season, last Sunday marked the end of phase one of the new departure. A few days previously, the newly constituted Games Administration Committee deliberated on a topic that will concern its members increasingly in the weeks ahead: the redrawing of the fixtures schedule.

These events mark the initial stages of a two month period when the new timetable will face its most difficult problems. The solution to these was always going to involve some element of rescheduling and most people looked forward to seeing matches tried on Saturdays or week day evenings.

Permission for the first of these was granted last week when the GAC gave Wexford the go ahead to play their Division One match against Kilkenny on Saturday, May 10th, at New Ross. This was done to avoid clashing with the county's Leinster football championship match against Westmeath, also at New Ross, the following day on which a full NHL programme is due to be played.

Other such proposals will be made as time passes. The GAC decision shows a welcome tendency towards averting conflicts of fixtures and avoiding some of the stunning muddles which have beset the summer timetable in recent years since awareness of the need to maximise the marketing of the games began, however dimly, to dawn.

So far, the debate on the League changes has swung modishly between enraptured enthusiasm and over reactive caution. The truth predictably lies somewhere in between and that's on the basis of evidence to date. As for the rest of the season, it's unknown territory and whether the experiment is a success will depend on factors that won't become apparent until next autumn.

The first phase of the NHL has been the most easily negotiated. It was always going to have a certain novelty value and attraction for a public starved of intercounty action. Figures released by the League's sponsors show attendance figures to be over two and a half times greater than for the corresponding fixtures for last season, 1995-96.

This statistic is, however, a bit misleading. Comparing the opening fixtures from October and November 1995 with those played in March and April of this year isn't to compare like with like. The disjointed: League fixtures that used to be played before Christmas in the old format excited little enough interest as they more resembled postscripts to the dying year's championship than the start of a fresh season.

This lack of interest was reflected in attendances at matches and the seriousness with which the teams approached them. To make a more valid comparison, take the figures for the last hurling Sundays in March of this and last year. It's not perfect because March 24th 1996 was the final day of the regulation matches in last season's League, but this year's equivalent, March 30th, was on the Easter holiday weekend so both dates had some additional attraction.

It might also be argued that the weather this March was exceptionally good whereas on the relevant Sunday 12 months ago, it was wet and unpleasant. That in itself though, is indicative of one of the main arguments for the experiment - better weather.

Anyway, rough calculations (not all figures are official attendances) estimate that the total for last year was about 25,500 (average 6,375) whereas this year had risen to 38,500 (9,600). It's not as spectacular an improvement as some have claimed, but at 50 per cent is still impressive.

If the first phase has been successful the next will be approached with more trepidation. May and June contain only two full Sundays of hurling but they are the two which will clash with the initial stages of the football championship.

In the case of May 11th, the conflicts are not major but include preliminary rounds in Leinster and Munster and the All Ireland under 21 football final between Meath and Derry. As mentioned, this has led to moves to re arrange matches.

The second full fixture list, a fortnight later, introduces the additional element of live television with Derry facing Monaghan in the Ulster football championship. This fixture is sufficiently removed from hurling heartland to have a negligible enough impact on the final round of divisional matches in the NHL.

A more pressing consideration will be the attitude of hurling team managements as their championship matches begin to loom while they're still involved in the League. Dublin and Westmeath will actually meet in the championship before they play each other in Division Two. Clare will have League matches a week before their championship opener against Kerry, and assuming they win that, before the Munster semifinal against Cork.

The future of the calendar year will be shaped by decisions made around this time. Teams can go either way: abandon their League effort or maintain momentum. Whichever route is followed has a risky destination. A county can end up expending too much energy in the League or fatally turning off their performance levels with the championship imminent.

Once the quarter finalists have qualified on June 1st there will be no play offs to determine progression, promotion or relegation in the competition - the matter becomes clearer with Saturday quarter finals and semi finals falling due in July and August. By that stage some - albeit few if the current standings hold - qualifiers will have lost out in the championship.

The most fervent desire of those who framed or support the hurling reforms will be that the teams which prosper in the League also do well in the championship. If a team which does badly or eases off in the League goes on to win the All-Ireland, a depressingly timid precedent will have been set.

Ideally for the success of the experiment, the GAA will want whoever wins the All Ireland in September to be present and correct on October 5th ready to compete for the League and championship double.

The unfolding scene will be anxiously monitored.