AFTER Clare's historic All-Ireland victory of two years ago, as everyone complimented Guinness for all it had done for the promotion of the hurling championship and vice versa in terms of positive publicity, few would have believed that the sponsors' sense of timing was only warming up.

One championship later and the act had been more than followed with Wexford's triumph, in ways even more ecstatically received as most of the county could actually remember having won All-Irelands and unless you've experienced something you can't miss it as badly.

On top of the emergence of such popular champions, Guinness have the added value of the two-year experiment with the hurling championship. The public's interest has heightened considerably during the current National League, and this summer promises an increase in entertaining occasions as the All-Ireland series will now feature a quarter-final stage and separate dates for the semi-finals.

The summer ahead is both an enormous opportunity and a challenge.

It is impossible to make a good argument against the rationale behind the changes to the hurling year. Over the past few months we have seen the enhanced appeal of league matches when played at the right time of the year.

An interested public is one vital piece of the overall picture but even more important is the interest and engagement of the counties involved. Ideally, the league should be keenly contested. If it is, the championship will benefit from the heightened profile of the game.

Among the more controversial provisions of the championship reforms is the re-entry of the defeated Monster and Leinster finalists at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage. There will be a certain anxiety among their proponents, as the championship unfolds, that the reforms do not end up facilitating All-Ireland victories for Tipperary or Kilkenny should they lose their provincial finals.

Such reasoning is of course more a matter of cosmetics, because hurling must come to terms with the fact that the leading traditional counties cannot be shut out forever. Ironically, though, at the moment it is those same counties who are most in need of a leg-up.

For the immediate future. the sight of the big three - Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary - capitalising on reforms designed to help the less aristocratic counties would strengthen the hand of conservatives who could point to Clare's and Wexford's successes having been achieved under the old system.

Three years ago, it was very hard to look beyond the competing claims of Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny, but in those intervening seasons, the hurling world has changed beyond recognition.

Nowadays, the hurling championship is more open than the football and this is the backdrop to the most early awaited championship in living memory.

Nowhere is this seen more striking than in Munster where the three front-runners, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary are all within inviting range of each other. Leinster looks set to host a genuinely three-way battle with three of the last four All-Ireland winning counties coming from the province (Kilkenny, Offaly and Wexford), an unprecedented indication of strength-in-depth.

Connacht and Ulster remain limited in terms of competition but Derry have decided to have another crack at the senior championship this year a decision which is welcome for the game in Ulster.

Teams like Derry and Roscommon will also have the option of entering the newly-introduced intermediate championship should they lose their first-round matches an innovation that received less attention than the rest of the reforms.

The new league season has shed much light on teams' championship prospects. The weather and atmosphere have been reminiscent of the summer and provide a far more telling index of how counties are progressing than the old winter competition.

Antrim and Galway are most likely to become quarter-finalists by winning their provincial titles. The new structure should suit Galway, who could use a stiffer test than the ever-willing Roscommon before playing in an All-Ireland semi-final.

Cyril Farrell's return as Galway's manager will excite speculation that the westerners are on the verge of turning all that under-age potential into senior achievement. It has been remarked that were hurling a 2-a-side game Galway would be unbackable, but it remains to be seen if an effective to can be put together for this year.

Antrim have been in the doldrums for a while. Two hugely-demoralising defeats by Limerick and Down were followed by a more respectable outing against Limerick last year. They look to have the measure of Down this time and the less daunting graduation to a quarter-final rather than a semi-final in a packed Croke Park should have practical benefits, provided Ulster discontent with the championship changes doesn't inhibit them.

As things stand, Munster should be as competitive as last year.

Continued on Supplement Page 2