Over the weekend, a special sitting of GAA's Congress made decisions that will have a bearing on future.
From 2018 on a three-year trial basis, the Munster and Leinster Championships will be played in a round robin format with five teams apiece within each province and a guaranteed four teams each. The provincial finals and All-Ireland knockout series also remain.
A six-team Tier 2 competition has also been amended to allow the top 2 teams compete for that year's Liam McCarthy Cup.
The proposals passed with 62% of the vote, although it would have failed prior to a change to voting made in last year's Congress.
"This time last year, it would have failed with the old conditions," The Sunday Times' Denis Walsh told Joe on Monday night in reference to the pass threshold at Congress being moved down from two-thirds majority to three-fifths.
He and ex-Wexford hurling manager Liam Griffin had joined us to discuss the effects of the changes that are coming in on the inter-county hurling and club scene.
"We're getting two home games and other counties will get two home games and I think that's a tremendous promotion of hurling within the counties where it happens," said Griffin of the effect from a Wexford inter-county perspective of increased numbers of games through a round-robin format.
©INPHO/Tommy Dickson
"I think as well as that, the amendment was good that it got passed, that the Christy Ring people or the Tier 2 people got the chance to go in the same year. The only thing about that that I would say is unfortunately they're going to start much earlier but that's the way it is. And hopefully the final of Tier will be played before a big match now and there's suggestions that it could be played before the Leinster final. That would bring these people centre stage and we need to bring the marginal counties centre stage."
But Griffin highlighted a few caveats with the changes which he outlines on the podcast.
Walsh touched on the impact on club players.
"I think this is a good start. I mean, I'm involved with my club team in Cork and we had a match on Sunday, I kind of relegation match. I was just talking to the players last night and I was saying, 'Lads, next year we'll be able to tell ye that in May or June you can book your holidays or whatever because you won't have a game in Cork," he said, before highlighting other aspects from Congress.
"There were other motions on Saturday that didn't get much attention that were designred to try to put more controls on inter-county managers. There was a motion that came in that an inter-county manager can only demand access to a player 10 days before a Championship match. That's fine but if a county doesn't fix a club match for three weeks before a Championship match, you know, there are ways around it."
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