Seán Moran on why Antrim have opted out of the Liam MacCarthy championship

If there was a surprise about Antrim's withdrawal from the senior hurling All-Ireland after 25 years competing with the top counties, it was in the timing.

The county was on a high after last weekend's NHL win over All-Ireland finalists Galway. Even if that was understandably too ephemeral a consideration for something that had been on the county's collective mind for a while, longer-term considerations made the decision equally surprising.

Last year's change of championship format guarantees teams at least three matches in the qualifier series, an arrangement that should benefit the Ulster champions. But the die had been cast and it's not hard to see why.

A quarter of a century's senior championship activity has yielded very little for Antrim who had automatic entry to the All-Ireland series until the revival of the Ulster championship in 1989 and who have carried the banner for the province in 20 of those 25 years.

Apart from the memorable semi-final defeat of Offaly and the consequent appearance in the 1989 All-Ireland final, the Northern experience has been dismal.

Statistics in this case don't mislead. There was one win in 25 years, two defeats by no more than a score and a further seven by single-digit margins. The other 15 matches were lost by double figures and the average margin of defeat throughout the period was greater than 13 points.

Pat Daly, the GAA's head of games, believes Antrim were correct to pull the plug. "With the exception of '89, there's nothing to show success-wise. Everyone's capable of causing an upset every now and then but the trend hasn't been encouraging."

Few will disagree with the diagnosis but there have to be questions about the treatment. For all that heavy defeats are numbing and demoralising (Antrim lost their qualifier round-robins last year by an average of 18 points), will even successfully competing in the Christy Ring Cup enhance the county's chances of one day competing at the top level or depress standards further?

One man who disagrees with the decision is Jim Nelson, who managed Antrim during their best phase of the late 1980s and early '90s.

"My view is that we should have gone for the Ulster championship and had another go at the MacCarthy Cup.

"I don't think dropping to a lower level improves your hurling. You end up adapting to the grade you're playing in. Antrim never progressed in championship when playing in Division Two of the league. Success might be easier but you're better off winning two matches in Division One than seven in Division Two."

Nelson's view is based on experience. A feature of the strong championship displays of around 15 years ago is that Antrim were very competitive in the NHL, holding their elite status in the old eight-team Division One. That of course could be considered self-evident. If a team is able to compete at the top, they'll do so; merely being present among the elite doesn't guarantee anything except severe beatings.

Daly and Nelson concur on the importance of the league as an instrument of improvement. For Daly the current system of promotion and relegation between the championship tiers is inadvisable.

"There's a weakness in this. Promotion and relegation should apply to leagues and your championship status should depend on that because it's worked out over a series of matches rather than one-offs. Derry went down to the Nicky Rackard for this season but they'll be far too strong for it.

"You run a play-off in August for the Derry hurlers and half of them will be thinking about football because the hurling season is effectively over. You're wide open to all sorts of contradictory results."

Nelson admits he wasn't a big fan of the championship reforms that have incrementally placed the Ulster champions farther and farther away from the hurling's top table.

Ten years ago the Northern representatives had direct access to an All-Ireland semi-final; two years ago to a quarter-final and last year to the qualifier round-robin.

Each obstacle, although set lower and lower, has proved as insurmountable as the last.