Seán Moran feels a league-based championship format is vital in hurling in order to take the all-or-nothing heat out of current encounters

The themes remain the same, only the context changes. This year the Guinness All-Ireland hurling championship will be run under its third format since 1996. Few will argue against the suggestion that each new structure has been better than what went before. It would certainly be the verdict of the two most important constituencies, elite players and public.

Keeping elite players happy is likely to become a more demanding task in the time ahead but providing them with a sensible programme of activity is a fairly obvious start.

Satisfying the public has never been to the fore in the counsels of the GAA but that too is changing. Greater attention is being paid to spectator facilities and a programme of fixtures - unthinkable even seven years ago - is now available on live broadcast.

Running a sport costs money and unless an organisation capitalises interest in its activities, it will operate at a disadvantage. So it is important that more big matches with spectator appeal are provided, both for financial and promotional reasons.

The optimum way in which to run off a championship has changed drastically with the passage of time. It probably made great sense in the days of horses and bicycles and mudtrack roads to minimise the distance between opponents for as long as possible in competition. These days there isn't such a readily available excuse for the provincial championships.

Such a departure would be for the overall good but it would also encounter significant obstacles. Provincial championships are the main source of revenue for the provincial councils and aside from the need for alternative means of funding their activities there is the loss of power involved in removing the ability to raise money and - more importantly - the discretion involved in distributing it.

Why is it for the overall good? The introduction of the qualifier system into hurling is welcome not just because it gives teams a second chance but because it will introduce variety into the championship.

Football has a broader base than hurling but the impact of the qualifiers was still radical. The GAA had been running senior All-Irelands for 114 years. Yet it was possible for last year's qualifiers to throw up 13 pairings that had never before been seen in the championship.

Currently three of the provincial championships are disasters as spectacles. Munster pays its way and all of its matches will be televised live and eagerly awaited. But all of the remaining provinces have virtually nothing of interest to offer. Of the 13 provincial championship matches outside of Munster only two will be broadcast - and one of those is the Leinster final.

Kilkenny and Offaly will also be on the television, but Kilkenny have won their last four meetings by an average of 11.5 points so it's going to need a hard sell.

It can be pointed out that Leinster counties have done well in their meetings with Munster opposition but this makes the argument. If Leinster teams are more competitive out of Leinster, what is the point of a Leinster championship?

The lack of variety and competitive depth is stultifying. In fact, given the shrinking field of contenders, you'd have to ask whether the implementation of the qualifier format is an adequate response to the challenge of maximising hurling's profile. A guarantee of two, rather than one, matches only improves things so much in football, but in hurling it is even less adequate given that the game is so different in summer than it is at less clement times of the year.

Whereas a league-based championship format may be desirable in football, it is vital in hurling. The football qualifiers generated a number of plausible and mostly competitive matches but hurling doesn't have that sort of resource. A group of eight teams would adequately encompass all hurling counties with plausible championship ambitions. It would replace the all-or-nothing heat of current encounters because one defeat wouldn't be fatal, but with all teams competitive, the matches would still be important.

It would necessarily reduce the number of competing counties, but that's the wrong phrase because so few counties genuinely compete. Twenty-one counties started this year's championship but less than half that number have any chance of even being vaguely competitive against the teams that will make the quarter-finals.

A general problem in the GAA is the reluctance of counties to contest competitions pitched at a realistic level. In hurling this is particularly hard to understand. Some of the weaker counties have been sounding off about the lack of a place for them in the qualifier series. Lose a match and they're out - as indeed three of them now are.

But what benefit would it be to anyone were they to turn up for a second, maybe more terrifying beating? Wicklow argued that they had created a great sense of occasion when Galway's footballers came to Aughrim last year, that it inspired their players and thoroughly engaged the public.

This ignores the reason behind such an impact. It was that Wicklow have taken some famous scalps at Aughrim and that Galway were perceived as being in turmoil after the surprise defeat by Roscommon. In other words there was, with a slight suspension of disbelief, the possibility of an upset or a close match.

Were Galway's hurlers to visit Aughrim, no one would turn up because it would just be target practice. Don't forget that Galway pottered around for years stuffing the likes of Roscommon, New York and assorted B champions to waves of public indifference.

A properly graded series of championships is a parallel requirement to a league-based championship at the highest grade if teams are to find their appropriate level.

In the meantime this inaugural year of the qualifiers in hurling at least promises an increased number of big matches, the prospect of four exciting quarter-finals - a major increase on the one on offer over the past five years - and a number of novel or rare championship pairings.

It's something to look forward to but remains an interim stage in the evolution of the championship into what many consider it should be and what it almost certainly will be in the future. The only uncertainty is how long we're going to have to wait.