When Kilkenny's Brian Cody received the Manager of the Year award in 2003 he emphasised in his acceptance speech that he was the apex of pyramid, the person who worked with the material provided to him by an army of volunteer coaches and development officers within the county.

His remarks went beyond the diplomatically generous or self-effacing because Kilkenny have over the past seven years devised and maintained a remarkably efficient structure designed to get the best of their emerging players from under-14 all the way up to the minor grade.

Tomorrow Kilkenny face Wexford in the Guinness Leinster hurling final at Croke Park. Historically, Kilkenny have dominated the provincial championship. In turns, Dublin, Wexford and Offaly have fulfilled the role of principal sparring partner with interludes where the challenge was genuinely three-way but at present competition is at a distinctly low ebb.

That's taking into account Wexford's cunningly devised ambush of two years ago, which remains Kilkenny's only defeat in Leinster in the past eight seasons. Their rare win doesn't appear to have revitalised the championship. For those who think differently, Wexford are available at 11 to 2 for this weekend's showdown.

In the background to this achievement was what Offaly's Pat Fleury described as "a most frightening statistic", the fact that Kilkenny have won 14 of the last 16 Leinster minors. That included 10 successive titles between 1990 and '99. Ironically, it was this sequence that made Kilkenny anxious and laid the groundwork for the current system.

For the latter six years of the decade, the county had failed to add an All-Ireland and county chairman Ned Quinn decided to see if they could improve on this rate of follow through and when the county finally, if momentarily, lost its grip on Leinster in 2000 Quinn decided to establish a development board.

He approached Brendan O'Sullivan, a respected figure in hurling who had managed Kilkenny to minor and under-21 All-Irelands and been part of a similarly successful senior management in the early 1980s, to chair the new body and asked playing legend Pat Henderson to serve as its secretary.

A side-effect of the initiative was to identify a whole cadre of coaches. Initially the board asked 40 former intercounty players, most with All-Ireland medals, if they would be willing to give eight nights a year to coaching under-age hurlers. Twenty-seven replied positively.

Once within the network the volunteers have proved steadfastly loyal. Whereas some take sabbaticals to work with management at minor, under-21 and senior level as selectors or managers, most return after their intercounty stint to slot in again to the development process.

With others joining up as the years go by, Kilkenny have established a constant supply of up-and-coming coaches. At present Cody is just about the only member of a county management team that hasn't come through the process. For instance, current senior selector and All-Ireland winning under-21 manager Martin Fogarty has emerged from the development squads and still maintains his involvement.

The first step taken by O'Sullivan and Henderson was to ask all clubs to send their best three players. It was felt that when conducting minor trials, smaller clubs didn't always get the same attention as the larger units whose players were as a result more confident of their place in the scheme of things.

It also means when it comes to the competitive business of minor and under-21 level, players know each other from the development squads.

For eight Wednesdays, dates decided well in advance, the young players - at first divided into North and South Kilkenny regions - receive intensive coaching for an hour and a half to improve their skills and develop them as hurlers. The team's respective mentors (there are about five per age group) also organise challenge matches against teams from other counties.

They also have regular meetings with O'Sullivan and Henderson to report on progress and any problems.

Perhaps significantly the Carlow minors, who have stunned the province by defeating Wexford and Offaly to reach tomorrow's Leinster final, were regular opponents for the Kilkenny teams in recent times.

The system established has resulted in a comprehensive trawl of under-age talent from under-14 to under-17. What's remarkable about the structure is that in an era when GAA clubs feel increasingly threatened and marginalised by the encroachment of intercounty activity, Kilkenny's development work co-exists peacefully within the county and emphasises rather than undermines the value of the local community base.

"We work out the fixtures in advance and don't let development activity interfere with club matches," says O'Sullivan. "If there's a tournament on somewhere, a player can't opt to skip a club match to play in it. The club always has priority.

"Clubs can stop a fella taking part if he's misbehaving and a player isn't allowed take part if he's neglecting his club by not playing for it. I don't believe in cocooning lads away. That sort of thing is killing the clubs and needs to be looked at.

"You need good adult club teams for young lads to look up to. If my fellas hear that Henry (Shefflin) is playing up in Bennetsbridge they're off there. You have to have those players available in club matches.

"It's important to be able to meet players like that in the street and talk to them. That was no bother to DJ (Carey) any more than it is to Henry."

Clubs also have liaison officers, who provide a channel of communication between each development squad and the clubs. This smoothes organisation and also allows a coach to enquire whether there are particular circumstances, personal, domestic or whatever, why a player's form has suffered or why behaviour has deteriorated.

According to O'Sullivan the concept, far from being an intrusion into the affairs of clubs, is geared towards benefiting them.

"The idea was that the lads would go back to their clubs as better players even if they never play under-age for Kilkenny. We have also devised a manual with the help of Donal Doyle (a sports science graduate from DCU, who is ironically from Glynn-Barntown in Wexford), who was placed here by Dr Niall Moyna (of DCU). He assisted with the coaching at a number of levels and put together the manual, which has details on coaching, nutrition and drills. That's been sent around to the clubs."

It's a common grumble amongst other hurling counties that Kilkenny can afford this laser focus on hurling because football is virtually a proscribed activity.

It's therefore slightly surprising to learn that the same development system is in place for football and although the numbers aren't as large - about 450 hurling to 200 football - the facility is there for youngsters who prefer the big-ball game.

Michael Dempsey, the former Laois footballer and manager, who is now a selector and trainer with the seniors first came to light after he had moved to Kilkenny and got involved in helping out with the football development squads.

The county board resources the development squads with distinctive training gear, a free hand to organise travel and catering for matches in Cork, Tipperary or wherever the mentors want. Ned Quinn also insists on all such teams wearing the black and amber county jersey.

Coaching and skills development are the priority. Competitive outlets such as the Tony Forristal (under-14) and Nenagh Co-op (under-16) tournaments exist but only a fraction of those involved will see top-level intercounty action in their careers.

The board is as careful to enlist the co-operation of schools in the county as it is in relation to the clubs.

For all that this production line of very good players has elevated Kilkenny to a position of enviable strength in the hurling world, O'Sullivan says that he has learned a lot from other counties.

"We've looked at other counties and they've looked at us. Mick Kinsella in Wexford has spoken to us and we've been to Tipperary and they up to us. It's all for the good of hurling - we're all hurling people first."

But some are more first than others.