As was the contention here last week, a Cork-Kilkenny final is not in itself any reason for concern that hurling is reverting to the closed shop of former years. But there are grounds at the end of a memorable decade to believe that the game could be running into general problems of competitiveness.

There are a few reasons why hurling has earned such a luminous profile during the 1990s. Some of them were accidental, some were a matter of timing and together they have appeared to refute Nicky Brennan's famous doomsday proclamation at the Congress of 1994 that hurling was on its last legs.

Later that summer Offaly came through and blindsided Kilkenny's three-in-a-row ambitions before scooping the pool in September.

It's important to remember at this stage when Offaly are heading into history as a majestically-talented side with two All-Irelands, that the atmosphere was rather different in the spring of five years ago.

Kilkenny had won the previous two All-Irelands and whereas they weren't clearcut favourites for the third, their main rivals were seen as Tipperary, maybe Cork and definitely Galway - in other words, as you were for most of the previous 20 seasons.

Offaly's breakthrough was therefore important and for two reasons: firstly it was important to inject an element of surprise into the championship but equally it was vital that a county with Offaly's then recent tradition of underage success should capitalise at senior level because it proved that such things could be generated by hard work and the shrewd husbandry of available talent.

This first breakthrough made, further advances were made. Offaly, for all their pyrotechnics, weren't major box office but that was to be remedied in the years that followed.

Limerick's arrival at the top table can sometimes be overlooked because they never won an All-Ireland but they triggered the revolution in Munster where Clare were the ultimate beneficiaries. They also turned out crowds in abundance and this was an important factor in hurling's rise to prominence.

Clare and Wexford provided the follow-through and records were set for attendances at a series of epic matches. The emergence and reemergence of counties intensified competition at the top although the times were marked by a decline in the fortunes of established powers, especially Cork.

The impact of Guinness's sponsorship and publicity are nowadays taken for granted - partly because of familiarity and partly because of subsequent inferior advertising campaigns - but during the inaugural year of 1995, the billboards captured the mood of that glorious summer.

It all helped bring the game to audiences which might not naturally have taken an interest in hurling. Another factor in this process was the gradual introduction of televised matches.

For the first summer, much to the frustration of RTE, the full broadcasts were deferred until the evening, but by 1996, there was conventional live coverage.

Finally, in 1997, the GAA championship reforms were introduced and proved a great success. Principally they introduced more high-profile matches and greater opportunities for promotion, like the provision of two competitive semi-finals played on separate Sundays rather than on a double bill.

The combined impact of all these events was to create an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation and seldom did the hurling fail to live up to expectation.

Looking ahead, there is cause for concern. Most of the foundations of this decade's progress are still in place but like the family mansion after all the children have gone, the hurling championship may be too spacious for what's left. Will there be enough competitive teams to provide big occasions in the years ahead?

Whereas there's no harm in Cork and Kilkenny once again coming to the forefront of the game, it would be disastrous if they were merely to resume an elitist domination of the game to the exclusion of the more egalitarian competition of the 1990s.

Although 1994 showed that no one can be entirely sure what's going to happen next in the championship, indicators at the moment aren't that promising. Clare look to have done enough to guarantee that the county team won't slip back into the shadows they occupied for so long, but their double senior and minor victory of two years ago carries a warning from history.

In 1968 Wexford won both and yet took nearly 30 years to regain the senior title and haven't won the minor since.

Other counties in Munster aren't as well placed either in terms of a serviceable senior outfit or a reserve of underage players of whom something might be made in the future. Waterford are on a win-or-bust course with the current senior team who now have catching-up to do in the light of Cork's re-emergence as a senior force.

Limerick have had no underage success to speak of this decade during which Cork and Tipperary have dominated minor with one interruption, from Waterford, in 1992 (Clare's All-Ireland was achieved after losing the Munster final).

Munster might be worrying but Leinster is terrifying. Kilkenny have won every single minor title this decade. Wexford have twice taken them to a fruitless replay and such work as the county has done at underage is all that stands between the province and a Kilkenny monopoly.

Offaly will battle on but of the county's newer players, only Simon Whelahan and to a lesser extent Paudie Mulhare have performed at a consistently high level. More recruits than that will be needed to keep the pistons pumping at senior level or else they will simply be the two-decade phenomenon which Wexford were in the 1950s and '60s.

For Laois and Dublin, getting within a couple of points of ultimately unsuccessful Kilkenny teams remains the highpoint of the decade. Ulster has become a competitive championship but to the detriment of the province's overall standard.

Galway complain that the new system doesn't suit them but if a county can't beat serious opposition at championship level, it's hard to think of a system which would.

Over the last 60 years, Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny have won 43 of the All-Irelands on offer - an average of over seven a decade. The last 20 years have been more democratic, with that average down to five.

It would be particularly disheartening after the freshness and excitement of the last decade if we were all to be told that the carnival is over for the conceivable future.