Nicky Brennan admits to mixed feelings about his county's fall from eminence in the Leinster minor hurling championship. As chairman of the Hurling Development Committee and vice-president of the Leinster Council, Brennan can see the positive side of the defeat by Offaly at the weekend, although it put a stop to Kilkenny's quest for an unprecedented 11th successive under-age title.

The result has set up a novel minor final between Offaly and Dublin, the first meeting between the counties at this stage since the very first minor championship in 1928. It is also the first minor final in the province since 1953 not to feature either Kilkenny or Wexford.

"To be fair, it was inevitable," says Brennan. "No way could you expect to keep that going. Everyone gets a bit stale. Someone said to me that it's a good wake-up call for Kilkenny. A little bit of thinking will be needed now. Coming after a disappointing senior round-robin, it's interesting that the top two in the minor round-robin have made it to the final."

The win is great news for Dublin and Offaly. It's 11 years since Offaly won the third of their minor All-Ireland titles and that's the last occasion on which Kilkenny failed to win Leinster. After the great disappointment of their senior side's wipe-out by Kilkenny nine days ago, Dublin will take encouragement by this indication that recent development work is beginning to pay off.

"Dublin have been coming and coming," says Brennan. "Their schools team has been giving Kieran's (Kilkenny) a great shot over the past two years. Since the combined Dublin colleges have been entering, the performances have been greatly improving."

Further good news for the counties came at the weekend's Feile na nGael in Belfast where Ballyboden-St Enda's from Dublin defeated Offaly's Birr in the Division Two final.

Offaly have reaped two senior All-Irelands from the successful minors of the 1980s but as those titles fade into the past, the county has struggled to maintain success at under-age level. They have managed to bring through a couple of new players to complement the current core but will be facing the prospect of multiple retirements in the next couple of years so a success at minor level would be very welcome.

Brennan is ambivalent about the value to Kilkenny of the county's clean sweep of the last decade's minor championships.

"That's difficult to answer. In 10 years, there's been two senior All-Irelands (1992 and '93 with only PJ Delaney of the 1990 and '91 minor teams involved)."