There is the old story of the prosperous man proudly showing his difficult father around a luxurious new home. Anxious to earn the father's approval after a lifetime of faint praise, he saves until last the shining high-point of the tour. Throwing back the curtains of his main reception room, he grandly gestures to a stunning sea view of a bay at sunset.

"What do you think, father?" he eagerly inquires.

"Ah, I always preferred mountains myself." There is an element of the miserable hoor to some observations on the GAA - a determination not to be impressed. In the interests of balance, this week's column will be an upbeat experience for the odd person who stays with it to the end.

This year's Leinster championship has not been a triumph of spectacle but maybe we're all too depressed by the lack of competition to value fully the excellence of Kilkenny. It's not the champions' fault that they can't get a decent match in their own province.

It is also a tribute to Brian Cody's management that they have come out of the traps so hungrily in three successive Leinster championships. No evident complacency or loss of appetite has interfered with the progress and the county has now won every single match in Leinster since losing the 1998 All-Ireland by double-digit margins.

How good they are in an historical context has yet to be seen but the very fact that they are being talked about in such terms after winning one All-Ireland gives an indication of the impression they have created. It is 13 years since a team reached four successive All-Ireland finals and Galway's achievement was qualified by their automatic presentation in the semi-finals (although it could be argued that Kilkenny have been enjoying the same facility in recent years).

The one forlorn hope being nurtured by the remainder of the hurling world is that Kilkenny's half backs might come under pressure and the whole team suffer disruption. Still it's a long shot to prescribe a tight match as the answer to Kilkenny's dominance when they've shown little inclination to be given a tight match in the past two years.

Should they go on to claim a place in history - maybe as the first team from the county to bring in three-in-a-row for 90 years - their presence in Leinster during these years may help explain and set in context the near collapse of the provincial championship.

Next we look at the football. There are so many levels to the success of the qualifier system that it's amazing to think only a year ago, the whole championship was being organised on a purely knockout basis. For a start there is the simple matter of more matches. This has kept players involved later than would usually have been the case and provided days out for supporters whose direct interest in the championship would normally be greatly curtailed.

Financially this has been a huge success, bringing crowds out in numbers for fixtures that didn't exist a year ago. Saturday's Croke Park double bill was a bit messy with the residents' protests and a slightly disappointing attendance but the turnout in Navan for Louth-Westmeath and the attention generated by wins for Galway and, more particularly Sligo, guarantee big interest for the concluding rounds.

In terms of greater competitiveness the additional matches have been greatly heartening. The institution of an extended season has greatly assisted counties that have been formerly stuck in a rut and the sight of Sligo and Westmeath in the final 12 of the championship makes the point. In the past the two counties would be only a month into a year of licking their wounds after one-point defeats by Mayo and Meath.

Sligo's case stands out. The team has spent a few years knocking around grounds in Connacht getting beaten in matches they should have won. Last weekend they lose one of their best players, come before a big crowd at what is essentially their opponents' home championship venue, lose a man after eight minutes, trail by three points going into the final quarter and mount a terrific recovery to defeat last year's Leinster champions.

Maybe there is a case that the playing of matches just six days after championship defeat is unfair on counties but that is something that can be looked at.

Outside of the qualifiers the provincial championships have also held their own. Admittedly we're only half way through the programme of finals but the evidence to date is encouraging.

Last weekend's Ulster final promised less because of the lop-sided nature of the draw but instead Cavan delivered an unexpectedly competitive display, which put the status of both counties into a new context. Tyrone won't suffer from the hard struggle they had to mount in order to take the Ulster title and Cavan's confidence will greatly benefit from how closely they ran one of the All-Ireland favourites.

Finally the progress of Connacht football has to be acknowledged. Three months ago the appearance of four western counties in the NFL semi-finals attracted a fair bit of comment but the fact that Tyrone's foot-and-mouth-enforced absence was partly responsible for this unique state of affairs detracted from the accomplishment a little. Now with 12 teams left in the race for the All-Ireland all four counties are still there and the province is in the proud position of having more survivors at this stage than Leinster, Munster or Ulster.

It's not that this vindicates an entire province but it shows that counties - no matter how low they have appeared to sink - can always respond to a bit of encouragement and decent coaching.

It's hard to imagine two counties more humiliated by last year's championship than Sligo and Roscommon - the former hammered by Galway and the latter squeezed out by Leitrim.

The task facing Peter Ford and John Tobin was both delicate and monumental. The sight of each county responding so well in such tight corners against such serious opposition was oddly heart-warming. A sort of redemption for themselves, football and the GAA, whose initiative in opening out the championship has been so well rewarded.

Email: smoran@irish-times.ie