Last week's reflections on the history of Cavan football concentrated - obviously - on successes over the years. Today the starting point is one of the county's defeats. The 1945 All-Ireland final featured a win for Cork's footballers who finished 2-5 to 0-7 ahead of the Ulstermen.

This was to be Cork's last title for 28 years but the victory holds great significance for former Taoiseach Jack Lynch. Right corner forward that day (presumably the only time a future Taoiseach and future Tanaiste - Cavan's John Wilson - played in an All-Ireland final), Lynch was in the middle of assembling a record that will hardly ever be equalled.

Having won four All-Ireland medals in succession with Cork's hurlers from 1941 to '44, Lynch was to add further honours with the footballers in 1945 and the hurlers a year later. It's hard to see six consecutive All-Irelands being won in the modern era.

Cork's four-in-a-row hurling All-Irelands is also a record, as is Lynch's colleague Christy Ring's career total of eight All-Ireland hurling medals, although it has since been equalled.

These statistics are well known. What's not that well known is that Cork's 1941 All-Ireland victory was rather unusual. A foot-and-mouth epidemic (spread obviously by Cork cattle) caused the withdrawal from that year's All-Ireland championship of both Tipperary and Kilkenny.

The Munster Council ordered that Cork and Limerick play-off for the right to represent the province at All-Ireland level. Cork won. Kilkenny, champions and finalists in the previous two years, had to watch as nominated Dublin went forward to beat Galway and lose to Cork in the All-Ireland final.

Later that autumn, with the epidemic abating, both provinces staged their finals. Dublin did beat Kilkenny but Tipperary emphatically defeated the new All-Ireland champions, 5-4 to 2-5. Loud was the moaning about the merits of Cork's status.

Nonetheless, on posters and plaques around the country, wherever the All-Ireland roll of honour is displayed, the hurling list says: 1941, Cork. History has an inexorable way with transient gripes.

There has been much agitation in the wake of Kilkenny's spectacular win over Galway in Thurles on Sunday. Most of it has been based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the championship reforms currently on the first season of a two year trial.

Neither the Leinster nor Munster finals provide a "back door" into the All-Ireland championship. The only relevance of those provincial championships to the All-Ireland is that the result determines which county progresses to an All Ireland semi-final and which goes into the quarter-finals.

Effectively the All-Ireland has become a championship running from provincial semi-finals in Leinster and Munster and involving the champions in Ulster and Connacht. There have been no "second chances" for Tipperary and Kilkenny. Once Tipp beat Limerick in the provincial semi-final on June 15th, they had qualified for the All-Ireland series, as had Kilkenny once they defeated Dublin a week later in Leinster.

To say that Kilkenny had a second chance is incorrect. They lost what was in effect a parallel competition when going down to Wexford in the Leinster final but are unbeaten in All-Ireland terms with wins against Dublin and Galway under their belts.

The provincial finals have in effect become disconnected - they are nice to win and carry a bonus of automatic progress to the All-Ireland semi-finals but are no longer part and parcel of the All-Ireland process.

Some people expressed their dissatisfaction with the system by refusing to go to provincial finals where there was nothing to lose and nothing at stake.

Both Wexford and Clare manifestly disposed of that argument with their displays against Kilkenny and Tipperary and the euphoric scenes that greeted their wins in Croke Park - before a record attendance - and Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

It is also necessary to dismantle the view that the reforms were introduced to benefit the "weaker" counties. There were two principal arguments behind the concept of expanding the AllIreland series.

Firstly, extra matches and the allocation of separate dates to each All-Ireland semi-final would give hurling greater presence and television exposure. This marketing-driven motivation has been helped enormously by live television.

Secondly, and very much secondarily, it was intended that as far as possible, the championship structure should facilitate the best team winning the All-Ireland. It was felt that many counties with fine teams have choked in the past when faced with the stifling traditions of provincial finals.

The purpose of removing that obstacle was not that it would help weaker counties because nothing can help them if they're not good enough but there should be an opportunity to mix it with other counties outside of a given province even if a mental block about winning the provincial title has developed.

As structure, it's still not perfect and the open draw is needed for a fully equitable championship. Otherwise the depth of the competition in Leinster and Munster gives those provinces' representatives too much of an edge in match practice - as glaringly shown by the weekend's match in Thurles - but that was a problem also inherent in the old system.

Once the public gets used to the disjunction of provincial and All-Ireland championships, the mood will be more receptive to running the two entirely separately with a seeded open draw for the All-Ireland culminating in some form of playoffs to maximise exposure.

So far, however, the current experiment has been an unarguable success and has set up two titanic All-Ireland semi-finals which will draw big attendances.

If the idea is a good one, it is not valid to object on the basis of the identity of counties perceived to be benefiting from it. In the long run, all counties will do well at various stages. If this year, it is Tipperary or, as looks more likely, Kilkenny who become the first All-Ireland winners in modern times to have lost a provincial final, then so be it.

One final caveat, however, needs to be entered. Not all the reforms have been a success. Included in the package were the ideas for new Intermediate and Junior championships. To date, the intermediate hurling hasn't worked out that successfully for the "weaker" counties for whom it was designed.

A junior team from Kilkenny has emerged from Leinster despite the best efforts of Wicklow and Carlow, and Cork won Munster last weekend. An intermediate championship based on the old B All-Ireland may well better serve the original purpose.

Still, there's no shame in the drawing board.