Seán Moran On Gaelic Games: Sunday's hurling final might have been disappointing as a spectacle, but there's no avoiding its significance - even on the superficial level of Kilkenny moving level with Cork at the top of the roll of honour.

Manager Brian Cody emphasised his team's pride at bucking the growing belief that All-Ireland titles couldn't be successfully defended.

To be fair, that belief had been on the run since Kilkenny began this season as such hot favourites to win out again, but Cody can be extended some licence in the wake of his achievement. The perceived impossibility of retaining the title has been under attack since 2001 when, as defending champions, Kilkenny were ambushed by Galway in the semi-final.

There have been structural advantages, which have benefited Kilkenny, but strip these aside and the manner of the weekend's victory remains very impressive. There was indirect pressure to win in that the difference between winning three All-Irelands in five years and losing three is the difference between a good and an exceptional record.

Cody himself made the point on Monday: "To have lost would have been a major, major blow. It would have made bits of the things we had achieved and that's being honest."

In those circumstances, the quality of the match will hardly have registered at all with Kilkenny people. Poor-quality finals are a fleeting disappointment and of more interest to neutrals than anyone else. The result is everything. Even if all else is equal there's no guaranteed market for quality. Cork people, one suspects, harbour a warmer spot in their hearts for the morass of four years ago when they narrowly turned over a hotly-fancied Kilkenny than they do for the sunshine spectacular of 1990 when Galway were beaten.

In fact, it is an even more striking tribute to Cody's team that they retained the Liam McCarthy while conspicuously under-achieving. The scale of Kerry's achievement under Mick O'Dwyer was as well illustrated by their bullet-proof display against Roscommon in 1980 as it was by the free-flowing pyrotechnics directed at Dublin two years previously.

Winning consistently in a largely knockout format means not being beaten even when playing below par.

Kilkenny have room for manoeuvre denied to Kerry in the old days, but they have so far declined the safety net by losing only two championship matches in Cody's five years - one semi-final and one final, neither of which were covered by the insurance of the qualifiers.

The two big advantages at the champions' disposal have been the ease of egress from Leinster and the stream of underage talent coming through, another tributary of which flowed to last Sunday's minor All-Ireland.

Lack of competition in Leinster means that Kilkenny always run the risk of a 2001-style upset in the All-Ireland semi-final. But this danger has been largely circumvented by the most striking aspect of Cody's management style - the Maoist devotion to perpetual revolution.

It's hard to think of a management in modern times that has been so open to the primacy of form and so unmoved by past achievement - with the possible exception of DJ Carey's return to action last year. Cody has used the National League to give new players an opportunity to test themselves and rewarded those that do with championship starts.

To borrow another political image, the alchemist's stone of political parties in democratic systems is the ability to be in government and behave as if you're in opposition. Cody has radicalised his team selections with the abandon of someone in charge of a team that needs a way out of a crisis.

Even acknowledgement of the underage supply has to be tempered by recognition of Cody's ability to make senior hurlers out of players who never made much of a stir at minor or under-21 level.

It's become a reflex to say Kilkenny can't be blamed for their excellence and other counties must aspire to their standards. Emulating Kilkenny isn't that easy for all other counties.

For a start you can't suddenly acquire that sort of tradition. Next year, Kilkenny are expected to be challenging for the county's first three-in-a- row in over 90 years and to become the most successful county in the history of hurling.

Tradition isn't 100 per cent necessary, as Offaly showed within the past 25 years, but it has knock-on benefits. For example, there is that regularly told story about Kilkenny's shock at losing a Leinster minor title for the first time in 10 years. The reaction was to send out a circular, asking former players to get involved in preparing development squads. Over 30 All-Ireland medallists volunteered.

Then there is the absolute focus on hurling. No other county refuses to enter two teams in the National Leagues, but Kilkenny's senior footballers have a season that ends in January when they are knocked out of the O'Byrne Cup.

This means that there are no serious fixture problems caused by dual players. It means that there is no distraction from the primary task.

The long-term problem is that if counties want to emulate Kilkenny's standards - and the trend in both football and hurling is towards specialisation - in this respect, what will be the GAA's response?

How will the authorities arbitrate if the two games increasingly go separate ways? Singular focus has to benefit the dominant code. The situation isn't of Kilkenny's creation and less severe forms of this apartheid take place in football counties. The issue is only peripheral to Kilkenny's achievement, but it's one reason why emulating the champions won't be that easy.