Clare have become the fifth beneficiaries of the new hurling championship system which allows defeated finalists in Leinster and Munster to proceed to the All-Ireland series. They follow Tipperary and Waterford in Munster and Kilkenny and Offaly in Leinster.

One of the most expert voices on the system is Leinster vice-chairman Nicky Brennan, who was one of those who devised the scheme as well as one of the first managers to avail of it when the Kilkenny team he was managing lost the provincial final to Wexford.

It was even he who coined the now accepted shorthand of "the back door" on the day of that Leinster final. He now feels that the format has been misrepresented as failing to assist certain less-than-successful counties who have remained as such.

"There's been a lot of misinformation about the reason behind the introduction of the system. It wasn't to give anyone in particular a second chance, it was to give hurling a higher profile and generate increased revenue and no-one could argue that it hasn't done that."

Another function of the format has been to dilute the exclusively knock-out system which up until two years ago had prevailed in hurling as in football. This year the penny has dropped that knock-out is a crazy waste of team's efforts and public interest.

Now that Congress has passed enabling rules to allow provinces to change their championship formats, it is likely that round-robin formats will appear in football in Munster and Leinster next year.

"We will see more matches for teams in the championship," says Brennan. "I'm convinced of that, but to arrive at that stage we had to go through a process. But changing the system won't solve everything. People should be pointing a finger at those responsible for the game in their own county rather than at the national and provincial structures."

One of the major objections to the hurling reforms was that they would diminish the provincial finals. So far all evidence has been to the contrary with four of the six played under the new system attracting crowds of over 50,000. Brennan also believes that teams have been unaffected by the change.

"I think that one's been proved beyond any doubt. Cork were euphoric on Sunday and I don't think they cared about whether or not they knocked Clare out. Maybe they will in a couple of days but they didn't immediately. I'd be amazed if teams weren't prepared to go flat out. It hasn't changed the attitude of teams one iota."

Two years ago Brennan's Kilkenny redeemed their Leinster final setback, when they lost a good halftime lead, by overturning Galway's nine-point interval advantage in that year's quarter-final and running eventual champions Clare close in the semi-final.

"I remember when we got a second chance. While we were disappointed that we lost to Wexford, we were missing players and by the time of the quarter-finals, we had the two injured players back. Now we lost them again before the semi-final, but that's another story.

"It was at least nice to get a chance to lose with your best available team. If you're going to lose it's preferable to do it with all guns blazing and your best possible team."

He recalls a structural advantage his team had in that they were still involved in the National League, which was running through to October that year on an experimental basis.

"You're dejected for a while but then it's up to you to make the best of it. We had one advantage in that it was the year the league was played through the summer and we had a quarter-final the week after losing the Leinster final.

"We said, well if we get our act together that evening, we'll be back on track. We got our best team back and it set us up for the Galway match. It was a good appetiser; it got us back on the field at the time."