A reduced NHL top division, no return to autumn scheduling, big-prize incentives and the abolition of the current All-Ireland qualifier series are among the suggestions from Tipperary manager Babs Keating in response to Saturday's decision by Central Council to launch a review of inter-county hurling competitions.

Although championship concerns are uppermost in his mind, as he prepares for a first Munster final in 13 years after taking Tipperary through the weekend's semi-final win over Waterford, Keating is in agreement with the process initiated by Central Council, which will consider the structure of the NHL while requesting the Games Administration Committee to prepare a similar review of the championship for presentation to next October's special congress.

One of the proposals currently in circulation was aired by GAA president Nickey Brennan in his speech to Congress in April and concerns the switching of NHL fixtures back to the autumn, bringing to an end 10 years of calendar-season leagues.

Keating feels the competition has in that time been supplanted by the provincial club championships and that it needs a more radical overhaul to reclaim the interest of teams and crowds alike. "In the old days there were big crowds going to the league and huge interest in new players coming through the county championships and whether they'd make it at county," he said.

"There's too much interest in the club championship now to be moving back National League fixtures to the autumn."

He points out that he is in sympathy with the clubs whose growing impatience nationwide with the encroachment of inter-county fixtures has been the driving logic behind the notion of rescheduling the league.

"They have a point and I'm one of the few managers to release players for club activity last weekend and I probably will have to do so again 10 days before the Munster final. But the league needs to be moved back not forward.

"I feel there should be some sort of super league as the secondary competition. There should be no more than 10 teams broken into two groups. Wait until Easter to start it and then run it off one weekend after another on Friday nights, Saturday and Sunday.

"You've had Kilkenny, and to the same extent Kerry, winning the National Leagues this year and it counts for nothing with their supporters. The whole competition needs new interest and marketing.

"Croke Park would have to look at the championship draws as well because the league should run until the middle of May and even later. There should be serious prizes for winning, a trip to Florida or the Bahamas in January for the teams that win."

The championship format runs out this year after two seasons and is also up for review. Inaugurated last year it provides for two round-robin groups of four teams each with the top two in both progressing to the All-Ireland quarter-finals. On the evidence of the first season the new structure proved considerably less audience-friendly than the old, knockout qualifiers with total crowds slumping by 53 per cent between 2004 and '05.

"Maybe the new arrangement for quarter-finals and qualifiers isn't a proper system," says Keating. "The qualifiers at present aren't working. You have these wasted dates with Laois, Dublin and Westmeath playing. I'm not being critical of those counties but the evidence is there that hardly anyone goes to those games."

The Tipperary manager would also be in favour of provincial champions receiving a tangible reward, as was the case until the quarter-finals were introduced.

"There should be a prize for winning Munster and Leinster. Teams should get through to the All-Ireland semi-finals. You'd push back the provincial finals so that there wouldn't be such a gap between them and the All-Ireland."

For the time being, however, Keating must concentrate on the Munster final in three weeks' time and the guaranteed All-Ireland quarter-final place that comes with it at the end of July. Although the team performance was uneven on Sunday, the display of Eoin Kelly was again superlative, leaving him with 2-23 from two championship matches.

Kelly's manager had simply described his star forward as "the tops" after the semi-final. Yesterday Keating paid further tribute to the stealthy productivity of the player with a significant comparison. "I was amazed to hear afterwards that he scored 2-9. There's a lot of Jimmy Doyle in him. You wouldn't have known Jimmy was there sometimes and then you'd see that he'd got 12 or 13 points."

Another player who has played well this championship is Diarmaid Fitzgerald, who has taken to his conversion from defence with great success and created two of Tipp's three goals on Sunday.

Keating says that the player's potential occurred to him during his recent spell coaching the UCD hurlers. "It was lucky enough for me when I was in UCD he was there and I was able to watch him in training sessions and saw enough in him to believe he could do the job."