The end of August and the finals are nearly upon us. The expansion of the championship calendar has created more big matches and greater opportunities for participation by all counties. It has also sparked an interesting and necessary debate on the basic equity of the current qualifier systems in both football and hurling.
With the season as good as over (for statistical purposes), a certain perspective can be shed on the competing arguments. It's not entirely clear that the current system actually penalises provincial champions - as has been claimed throughout this summer.
Once again, the finalists in either code will comprise one team of provincial champions and a team from the qualifiers.
The phrase "once again" is justified because the dilution of the knockout format has been a feature of the summer for the past five years. Including this year, that's eight All-Ireland pairings - six hurling and two in football.
Of the eight, six have been between provincial champions and qualifiers. But to attribute this pattern even partially to the gap between provincial finals and the All-Ireland series isn't a watertight assertion.
Once the concept of diluting the primacy of knockout was accepted at congress six years ago, the texture of the championship was bound to change. It would enhance the chances of getting the two best teams into the final, regardless of their provincial origin.
This has largely happened. With the exception of the 2000 hurling final, the All-Ireland pairings have had plausible claims on being the best available.
The problem of fairness pertains more to the fact that teams generally learn more from losing than winning. The first guinea pigs, Tipperary and Kilkenny, benefited considerably in this regard in 1997.
Nonetheless, the hurling experience suggests that winning an All-Ireland after losing a provincial final is not easy; Offaly is the only county to accomplish this and that was more a commentary on disaffection within the camp after the 1998 Leinster final rather than any opportunity to revamp the line-up in the aftermath of defeat by Kilkenny.
Even this year, events aren't conclusive. Waterford lost to Clare because they played badly rather than because they were flat. A week later, Kilkenny played really well against Tipperary and displayed no signs of rustiness. But the fact is that some teams get greater opportunities than others.
Football's precedents are no more definitive. Defeats last year for Ulster and Connacht champions, Tyrone and Roscommon, weren't interpreted at the time as being the consequence of an overlong break, but rather the opportunity afforded of Derry and Galway to put their house in order.
The provincial titles have diminished in importance. This was inevitable and no more than a recognition that the provincial titles owed a substantial part of their significance to their dual status as tickets to the All-Ireland semi-finals.
In the current system, the loss of that status is complicated by the sight of teams that have competed in the same province as - and may even have lost to - any of the provincial champions sailing past them to a more advanced stage of the championship.
It's hard to regard the title as much of an achievement when, as in Cork's case, a team that you previously beat en route to the Munster championship hammers you senseless in the All-Ireland semi-final.
But the same could be said about the league. The difference is that it is presumed that the provincial championships have some relevance to the All-Ireland race. In fact, they are simply parallel events.
None of the above should be taken as a whole-hearted endorsement of the current system. It is, like so many other things in the GAA, a stage in a process. Change never comes in bold strokes but is creeping and incremental. The decision to allow defeated provincial finalists back into the hurling championship drilled a significant hole in the monolithic knockout format. Gradually, it has crumbled - and will continue to -- as the benefits of its demise becomes apparent.
An interesting blueprint in this regard was submitted to last April's GAA Congress. It came not too surprisingly from Pat Daly, the association's Head of Games, whose indefatigable efforts to reform a whole variety of daft practices from playing rules to competition structures have met with some success but not nearly enough.
In a section, entitled Games Overview, he spells out two necessary aspects for a fair inter-county format. One is practical, the introduction of extra-time into most matches - an innovation that would have saved a great deal of trouble this year even if it would have cost the GAA the Dublin-Donegal receipts.
The second requirement is more important and calls for a (championship) series: Which guarantees all teams a minimum number and an even distribution of qualifying games. (The principles of fair play, which underpin all aspects of competition, will only prevail when this is the case.)
The only way of securing this is a league-based format, which Daly proposes should be broken into four first division groups of five teams and two second division groups of six. These would all play on a round-robin basis before concluding in knockout stages.
The blueprint looks at the whole championship in its context and by proposing an August end to the All-Irelands, provides that September be freed up for club activity - something that would address one of the perennial concerns that arises when reform of the inter-county championships is mooted.
It is significant that all of the problems besetting the current championships originate in the need to accommodate the provincial championships in some form or another. It was such an imperative that bedevilled and ultimately helped sink the progressive report of the Football Development Committee.
Reforms like the one proposed by Daly will be on the agenda sooner rather than later. The frustrating thing is that they will take so long, despite the abundant and incontrovertible evidence in their favour.
