An ability to defer benefit is said to be an indication of intelligence in children. It actually has wider application. The GAA's depressing inability to let go of the knockout format for championship is a case in point. This debate received wide exposure in the run-up to last month's annual congress and the dusty fate of the FDC proposals.

But now with matches hardly started, the lamentable state of the football and hurling championships is fast emerging.

There's no need to retread the arguments which surrounded the radical plans to overhaul the football championship, but there is perhaps a need to spell out what's at stake. The last month has essentially supported most of the FDC's basic analysis but widened its application.

It's hardly original to point to Waterford's fate at Pairc Ui Chaoimh and rail against the death of the county's competitive year before the end of May. But consider the damage.

One of the better-supported counties now has no inter-county outlet for its supporters. One of the more competitive teams is no longer available to participate in the championship.

Hurling has escaped analysis, as the focus on the football championship intensified, but, for a sport with fewer than 10 genuine contenders, to toss teams aside after one defeat is crazy.

The reforms of recent years were aimed at providing more matches at the hard end of the championship, quarter-finals and competitive semi-finals. For teams who miss out on the provincial finals in Munster or Leinster, the problem remains unresolved.

Despite some criticism, the round-robins in Leinster have been a success. The sense of excitement in Aughrim and, to an extent, Carlow was testimony to how the league format can ultimately generate as much drama as knockout.

Their unexpected success in topping the table might not empower Wexford to defeat Dublin but it will hardly do them any harm and the county hasn't come near four championship football matches in a season since reaching the Leinster final in 1960.

In hurling, either Dublin and Laois will feel in better shape to take on Kilkenny after resolving their round-robin on Monday next but, to draw wider conclusions, whoever does emerge will need to put up a decent show .

The football league concluded with the two best teams in the country at the moment playing out a cautious two matches with subdued interest from the public.

Last Sunday, Tipperary manager Nicky English explained the discrepancy between his team's league final performance and their championship victory over Waterford.

"Maybe our team is mature enough to recognise the difference between the championship and the league. There were 13,000 at the league final and 35,000 out there today and certainly more Tipperary people." So to recap, the month of May has reaffirmed a) the madness of the knockout format as a waste of a team's talents and efforts, b) the value to teams of being guaranteed a few championship matches, c) the disposability of the league in the context of championship. These were just three of the planks in the FDC's platform.

What is the response of all those who denounced the proposals to these continuing flaws? Why the heedless desire to cling to outmoded and damaging structures? Last weekend also provided indications as to why this remains the case.

There is no doubt that the knockout format generates enormous excitement. It performs the function ascribed to ancient Greek tragedy - purging the emotions with terror.

In this case the terror is that of losing your place in the summer programme. It afflicts players and contributes to the manic intensity which often boils over into displays of indiscipline. It also afflicts supporters. The sense of doom for the Waterford contingent was almost palpable.

This sense of finality is part of the drug which sells knockout competition. The corresponding relief at winning is all the more in tense. League format, with its gradual and incremental developments, can't compete at that same visceral level.

Expanding a programme of matches to allow greater participation for players and more opportunities for supporters to see their county play has implications for attendances.

Whereas the aggregate would go up, there would probably be fewer blockbuster crowds in the early stages of the competition: in other words, healthy interest spread wide rather than exorbitant interest confined to a handful of matches.

The FDC scheme may have carried its inbuilt infirmities, such as the danger of dead matches between teams with nothing much to play for, but these shortcomings were entirely the result of trying to accommodate the provincial structures which, however traditional and atmospheric, are unjust and inimical to a properly run championship.

Statistics collated by Anne Ryan, presumably a Waterford supporter, which received coverage in the Sunday newspapers, show the vagaries of the Munster hurling championship. Whereas the point that Waterford have suffered by having to play a preliminary round in 12 of the last 14 years is questionable - provincial champions over the same period break about 50-50 between those who had to play a preliminary round and those who didn't - it's not wholly irrelevant.

In the five years since their breakthrough championship of 1995, Clare have only had one preliminary round and that against Kerry. The nature of Clare's game places a premium on having as few matches as possible - as became obvious when replays effectively derailed their seasons over the last two years.

Consequently it's been an advantage not to be drawn to play three matches in Munster rather than two. Such inequitable situations are routinely thrown up by knockout championships in provinces which vary in size from 11 to six.

There is strong evidence to suggest that a championship based on hierarchical leagues - say three divisions of 11 in football and hurling - is the best way forward for Gaelic games. The only question is how quickly is it possible to get from here to there.