With a flair for resurrection worthy of Offaly, the debate on the current hurling championship format has reignited in the last fortnight. Like most of the debate on this subject it has been tinged with irrationality but given the way the championship works, this isn't altogether out of place.

As is often the case with eccentric arguments the renewed dissatisfaction with the system draws support from all points on the graph. Traditionalists still aren't the better of the change to the old-style championships and the consequence for the provincial finals whereas radicals want to tear down the provincial championships.

There is rather more merit in the latter view, but that has been the case for a long time and not just since it emerged that we must face another Offaly-Kilkenny All-Ireland final.

The suspicion that Offaly would prove unpopular champions is probably well-founded but not wholly attributable to the method of their advancement. At this stage, there is a residue of sympathy for Kilkenny's two All-Ireland defeats and a feeling abroad that it's their turn rather than Offaly's.

There's no doubt that Offaly's recovery from serial failure in the last three Leinster finals has irritated hurling followers and their unexpected success in reaching the All-Irelands of this year and 1998 has led to resentment but this is grossly unfair on the county.

It's impossible to maintain credibly that Offaly have in any way connived at the current situation and the theory that they have rests entirely on the luck of the draw which has given the county the easier quarter-final in each of the last three seasons.

Cynics might argue that Central Council coffers and Offaly have benefitted from the three draws, as on each occasion the pairing with maximum box-office potential (Galway versus the best-supported of the remaining three teams) made it out of the hat. But Offaly hardly threw three Leinster finals on that basis. What has happened is that the reformed championship has disconnected itself from the Leinster and Munster finals. Strictly it is the winners of the semi-finals in both provinces who advance to the All-Ireland series, rather than the losing finalists.

Grumblings about Offaly reflect nothing more than a curious obsession with the knockout format, that only unbeaten teams should be allowed win titles. Sudden-death is a system for running a competition not a defining characteristic of a championship - as evidenced by the counties who use alternative systems for their own club championships.

In fact, there's a case to be made for the proposition that the format is damaging to the game. By limiting the number of decent matches in what is already a limited field (17 counties against 32 in the football championship), unmitigated sudden-death is actually a promotional disaster.

It's not even a tradition universally observed within the association. There are plenty of county championships which feature some dilution of the knockout format and Offaly were not the first county to win an All-Ireland without a provincial foundation.

The first of Cork's four-in-a-row titles in 1941 was won in unusual circumstances. Because of a foot-and-mouth epidemic, Tipperary and Kilkenny were excluded from that year's Munster and Leinster championships. Munster Council ordered that Cork and Limerick play-off for the right to represent the province at All-Ireland level. Cork won. Kilkenny, champions and finalists in the previous two years, had to watch as nominated Dublin beat Galway but lost to Cork in the All-Ireland final.

Later that autumn, with the epidemic abating, both provinces staged their finals. Dublin did beat Kilkenny but Tipperary emphatically defeated the new All-Ireland champions, 5-4 to 2-5.

WHO CARES at this stage? Cork's name is on the roll of honour and the four-in-a-row is still a record. In other sports, three soccer World Cup winners lost matches during the tournament but who remembers or holds it against them?

The essence of good teams is that they win the matches they have to. Offaly have done that this year. They didn't look to have lost interest in the Leinster final but rather to have been outplayed. Whatever the explanation for their defeat, in the wider context they are the only county in the last four seasons to reserve their worst performances for the provincial final. This anomaly shouldn't be sufficient to trigger a reversion to the former status quo.

When advocating the retention of the current system at the special congress in October 1998, then Hurling Development Committee chairman Frank Murphy said that the twin objectives of the reforms had been "the promotion of hurling and the raising of the profile of major games".

"There was little use in RTE providing us with live TV if we didn't have the matches to give them," he said at the time.

These objectives have been well met and so successful that any future changes are likely to advance the reforms rather than reverse them. Offaly's detractors will just have to grin and bear it.

e-mail: smoran@irish-times.ie