THE START of the National Hurling League this weekend may well be a watershed in the game's history. After several abortive attempts to get a new schedule of matches into place, hurling now starts out on a two-year experiment which will see the National League run from spring to autumn.

The round-robin matches in four divisions will start tomorrow and the plan is that by June 1st, the way will be clear for the quarter-finals to be played in late July, followed by the semi-finals in August and the final on October 5th.

As always in these matters, there was opposition and some counties even threatened that they would not take part in the league. Wiser counsel prevailed, thankfully, and it now" remains to be seen if the two-year experiment will be confirmed as the way things will be done in the future. One can only hope, that this will be the case.

For years, there has been a widespread belief that both players and supporters would prefer to play and watch the games in good weather conditions, and that the game itself deserved firmer pitches and balmier breezes to allow it to prosper.

The arguments against, centred on the effect such intercounty competition would have on club fare. The old "club is the backbone of the association" drum was loudly beaten and with some good reason.

It is a fact that the vast majority of players will never aspire to the inter-county game and yet they do help to keep the game alive in many parts of the country. Cavan was the only county not to field a team in last year's league.

Hurling is the poor relation in the majority of counties and yet the game evokes a special excitement everywhere.

The game has been particularly well served by recent teams from the like of Clare and Wexford, two counties which have kept the flag flying in spite of almost overwhelming disappointments. Sooner, rather than later, Limerick will surely also reap the rewards they deserve.

Such successes will have inspired counties like Waterford, Kerry and Laois and what a wonderful thing it would be for hurling if Dublin were to emerge from the wilderness, or if Antrim were to win the All-Ireland title which has always eluded them in spite of their great loyalty to the game in the most trying of circumstances.

It is, perhaps, a good omen that a hurling man, Joe McDonagh from Galway, will take on the mantle of GAA president at Easter. He, surely, epitomises what hurling means to so many people. A graphic photograph appeared in these pages last December of Joe hugging his son Eoin after they had both helped Ballindereen to win the Galway Junior B-final.

Joe has had his disappointments in hurling down the years and even when Galway made their never-to-be-forgotten surge into hurling history in 1980, Joe was not a part of it because of illness. Yet his loyalty to the game extends to playing at Junior B level 16 years later, with lads young enough to be his sons.

Another man who kept the faith down the bleak years was George O'Connor and, again, the picture says more than a thousand words. The final whistle in the All-Ireland final blows and George falls to his knees to whisper a quiet prayer. All the bitter disappointments are wiped away in that ecstatic moment for a consummate hurling man.

No amount of money or tawdry television fame could buy those indelible moments.

We heard, this week, of a festival of Gaelic football, hurling and camogie being staged in Dubai. We know that wherever Irish people gather around the world, these games will be played and news of club and county activity at home will be eagerly sought on radio, television and now, the Internet.

Hurling's experimentation with its National League may be a step in the dark, but it is a brave step and one than can lead to a long journey. Hurling has all the qualities which can attract and captivate even the most jaded sporting palate.

The National League will always be second fiddle to the championship, but this experiment has the potential to spread the gospel of hurling not only within Ireland, but farther afield. The lush grasses of summer and early autumn will give the better hurlers a proper stage on which to display their talents.

Better weather conditions will also encourage bigger crowds and, by extension, a better atmosphere and a bigger income from gate receipts. It is not too fanciful to assume that more young people will be attracted to the game because of these collective factors.

In embarking on its ambitious development scheme for Croke Park, the GAA demonstrated its faith in the future. The radical alteration to the fixture list is a brave move and merits the kind of success which the great game so richly deserves.