On Gaelic Games: Euphoria all around after Sunday's Leinster hurling finals at Croke Park. It might seem unambitious to celebrate so lustily a big occasion on the basis that it proved competitive from start to finish, but that's the state of things in inter-county hurling, particularly in Leinster.

Observers, including this one, certainly underestimated Wexford and framed overly pessimistic views of their likely fate against Kilkenny. Furthermore, this process involved devaluing to an extent the county's win over the same opposition last year.

But was that unreasonable? There was clear evidence that Wexford had peaked for the big win over Kilkenny, with the championship still a whole three months from conclusion. A slightly fortunate Leinster final win followed by annihilation at the hands - and galloping feet - of Cork had to qualify the early-season achievement. In the meantime, the league campaign had started promisingly and ended in disaster.

Anyway, the verve and bottle shown on Sunday was greatly to be welcomed, but within even - particularly - the most sympathetic hearts lurks the apprehension that Wexford have previously followed stirring deeds with calamity.

The next day out, probably against Waterford or Galway, will be as relevant a test of where the county stands as last Sunday's display, hugely heartening though it was. Consistency - the ability to play to a serious level on a regular basis, as now demanded by the new championship format - has to be attained.

Leinster chair Liam O'Neill deserved the warm glow of his presentation speech on Sunday after a fine senior final and a great breakthrough by Dublin's minors. But it wouldn't do to get carried away.

That a decently competitive provincial final came as such a thrill reflected provincial semi-finals that returned a cumulative winning margin of 42 points. It also reflected a season in which the Munster championship has been unusually anaemic, producing one half (the first 35 minutes of Cork-Waterford) of a good match - quality hurling sustained by both sides for most of the 70 minutes - over its five fixtures.

Fingers will be crossed that the first year of proper All-Ireland quarter-finals will be a success and set up the season for competitive semi-finals - three of the last four All-Ireland semi-finals have been won by margins of 18, 12 and 13 points.

There has been some criticism of the laborious qualifier system that takes 12 matches to lose the four weaker counties, but to be fair to those who devised the system its purpose was to expose all counties to an enhanced competitive programme over the summer.

Unlike the original championship reforms of 1996, which were intended as marketing measures to provide (ironically) two stand-alone All-Ireland semi-finals rather than the double bill to which Galway and the Ulster champions had automatic access, the current system was to guarantee the likes of Dublin and Laois at least four matches in a summer.

This mightn't be exactly a whirlwind of activity, but it's an improvement. The hope is that repeated exposure to this level of championship hurling will force the standards up in the trailing counties and eventually get them competitive.

Of course, there are no guarantees and the whole idea depends on counties working hard to improve the quality of their challenge and, through that, the ability to adapt and learn from the hard matches. But there's only so much the GAA can do in terms of championship structure to encourage the less successful senior counties. Dublin's achievement in taking a provincial minor title was based on great work at under-age level going back a number of years. In 2000, the county minors reached an All-Ireland semi-final and in the first half of the decade have transformed their under-age challenge.

Jubilation is perfectly legitimate in the circumstances, but it's salutary to remember that Kilkenny have won 14 of the previous 15 Leinster minor titles. That's the sort of standard set by the province's brand leaders. One minor title is more significant as an acknowledgement of progress to date than as a guarantee of progress in the future.

It also jars dissonantly with the soap opera of the county seniors. Now more than ever a serious senior outlet is needed in Dublin. For a start, it is the much clichéd shop window for hurling in the county, the best means of promoting the game to youngsters and maintaining the flow of recruitment.

Even more importantly, Dublin needs a strong senior hurling set-up in order to capitalise on what's happening at under-age. It won't have escaped the notice of anyone following the progress of the minors that a number of the big names are dual players.

Which means they are time bombs. If they feel that their ambition is wasted on the senior hurling team they'll move on and take up exclusively with the footballers just as Conal Keaney did and who would blame them in the circumstances? So there's a long way to go before all the brightest hopes can be realised, particularly as even with the wind at its back Dublin hurling's journey is always uphill.

There have been some naïve assumptions about the vast flood of spectators that a successful Dublin team would engage. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the game in the capital is similar to football in Wexford: some marvellously committed and enthusiastic individuals and a tradition going back to the early years of the GAA, but a lack of engagement among the public.

Wexford's footballers reached a NFL final this year and went into a provincial semi-final against Dublin with better prospects than the hurlers had on Sunday against Kilkenny. Yet, the turnout from the county was miserable, leading even someone as measured in his opinions as Leinster secretary Michael Delaney to express bewilderment at the paltry 4,000 tickets sold in the county for the championship semi-final.

Dublin were in Leinster hurling finals 14 and 15 years ago, losing narrowly to a Kilkenny team that reached the 1991 All-Ireland final. The team managed by Lar Foley also did well in a couple of league campaigns. But anyone expecting the Hill to come alive as a result would have been disappointed.

The 1990 final against Offaly attracted 20,383 and whereas the figure nearly doubled to 41,215 for the following year's tilt at Kilkenny that year's final suffered the ignominy of being staged together with the Meath-Wicklow football replay, which accounted for the bulk of the attendance - not surprisingly just weeks after the epic four matches against Dublin and with Wicklow hopes high after the draw.

It is good that hurling had a positive weekend, but that optimism needs to be nurtured by realism.

smoran@irish-times.ie