NINETEEN EIGHTY EIGHT. Another interesting weekend in the hurling championship defined in the unity of that temporal theme.

Eight years had passed since Wexford had beaten Kilkenny - or indeed any front rank county - in Leinster. At the other end of the spectrum, Meath hurlers lost their manager of eight years, John Davis.

Eight years is a long time. In 1988 the GAA's world was a little sleepy and predictable. It was the last time both football and hurling All Irelands were retained. It was also the year of the soccer dam burst when Euro 88 triggered the great growth of the game in the country with consequences that the GAA now confronts up and down the country.

One respected commentator on hurling suggested at the weekend that videos of the last 10 years would become treasures in the near future because the levels of skill in the game were steadily dropping. The growth of soccer has led to declining numbers taking up hurling.

It is possible to take a less gloomy view of affairs. Undoubtedly the competition for the hearts and minds of youngsters taking up sport has curtailed the previously untrammlled influence of the GAA, it has equally forced a more realistic approach to coaching. Furthermore, levelling standards are good for competition.

Just as in football, after the decline of Kerry, teams are emerging in hurling and it is becoming a matter of more detailed conjecture as to who will win All Irelands. The more that titles are spread around, the greater the interest the game attracts.

Ironically, for John Davis and his Wexford counterpart Liam Griffin, hoping to exploit any levelling off the most threatening competition - comes not from soccer but from football. Both managers have struggled with similar difficulties - lack of confidence and the administrative curse of dual players. For Davis, however, the struggle has been less yielding.

Meath on Sunday performed creditably and lost to Leinster champions Offaly by as few points as they could, given the flow of the match. Hurling in Division Two and never able to get a good run in the summer, the county has been condemned to re read the same short road year after year. They actually departed the championship in April last year.

The structural difficulties within the county relate to the fact that all Davis's hurlers play club football and with the county championship tipping along at the moment, the Meath hurlers have had little time to prepare.

Until the 13 day inter county moratorium was imposed, there were nights when only nine or 10 players turned up for training. In the last fortnight the numbers swelled to 25. Reflecting on his tenure, Davis says he would do things differently if he was starting tomorrow, that he has learned to have no sympathy".

His impatience is more with players than the authorities. He now believes that inter county panellists should commit themselves exclusively to hurling during the summer. Club football obligations bedevilled his preparations, with some hurlers preferring to train with their football clubs.

As Davis points out, Sean Boylan manages to get 30 footballers to turn out for his sessions. Meath's football manager will also have the added advantage that the county championship will be halted while the footballers are still a live proposition in Leinster.

Matters reached a head some weeks ago when the entire hurling team Davis brought to Galway for a challenge had played a football match that morning.

At the end of his eight years, Davis does have much to look back on with satisfaction. He took over a team which patrolled the no man's land between Divisions Two and Three. He left the team comfortable tenants of the second division and winners of the 1993 All Ireland B title.

Even joy at the latter success was qualified, however, because a number of players simply retired, viewing the achievement as an end in itself rather than the springboard Davis had hoped it would become.

LIAM GRIFFIN'S world is more straightforward but just about. He knows that the County Board are as anxious as anyone to assist in bringing inter county success to Wexford. The same problems are present in that the county has a high number of dual players among its hurling panel. But hurling is the summer game.

As a constant advocate of long term planning, Griffin is relieved to have achieved a championship result which helps validate his methods. Essentially, he had three aims for Wexford teamwork, trust and speed.

First, they should go out not as 15 hurlers but as one team. Second, they must trust the next line of, the team. In other words, let the ball go forward and stop imagining that you are the only one who can win the match. Third, as realised by Clare, the game as played in the county was too slow and needed increased momentum.

These principles were all evident on Sunday, particularly at midfield. Adrian Fenlon and Rory McCarthy moved the ball without clutching at it and embarking on tediously unproductive soloing.

Wexford aren't the finished article yet but there were encouraging signs for the county. Griffin's managership has been a slow process which even he occasionally despaired of. In a challenge match, if little things went right he was enormously grateful because he could go back to the players and say, "see, it's paying off".

In terms of pay off, a championship win over Kilkenny is a handsome interim retainer. There were other positive side effects.

Brendan Hackett managed Longford and Offaly's footballers earlier this decade. An expert on sports psychology as well as physical fitness, he made the following point about unsuccessful counties. They were, he said, conditioned to fail.

Kids went to matches each summer and saw their county lose. On the way home, their fathers and uncles bad mouthed all the players, the mentors and anyone else they could think of. By the time they grew up and started playing, they were programmed to regard their county as losers and the cycle could start again.

In 1984, only a year after Griffin started training hurlers in Rosslare - as a concrete contribution to reviving the county's fortunes - he organised a busload of boys to visit Croke Park where they saw Wexford beat Kilkenny, then All Ireland champions. On the bus was Rod Guiney, who gave such a barnstorming display at half back two days ago.

At the weekend Griffin was pleased to see so many children from Wexford present because it perpetuates the cycle and sent home a future generation with positive thoughts about their county.

Meanwhile, in Meath, John Davis takes a well deserved rest and the county looks forward to the football starting.