I spent the summer hurling

With the arrival of the hurling championship it's time once more to dig out Denis Walsh's brilliant book, Hurling: The Revolution Years.

The overriding feeling reading it is of seething competition in the hurling championship. Each team thought they could win any game. His book focuses on the characters of the mid-nineties and the series of rivalries that inspired renewed devotion to the sport from fans, media and sponsors alike. A key moment in the game's history.

Then for a while the old order was resumed and Kilkenny or Cork dominated from the start of this century with an almost inexplicable blip where Tipperary won. The idea that almost any team could put a run together which would include beating either Kilkenny or Cork and most likely both became laughable. Only Cork would beat Kilkenny and vice-versa. The rivalry provided occasional flickers of individual brilliance but any sustained team effort tended to be about repetition of functional tasks. The team who hit the highest averages in the game's basics were rewarded.

Indeed there was much soul-searching in the GAA about the future of hurling. That it was conducted with analysis by committee could have been fatal, but generally there have been innovative thinkers at work.

Now this year hurlers from each county will know that they can play hurling late into the summer on the best pitches, championship-sharp with a realistic hope of some glory. Last year it was a novel shock to the system and almost completely under-appreciated.

For the Galacticos of the first division, this could be the best championship in years. It could also retrospectively make us very impressed by what Cork and Kilkenny have achieved. The GAA have recently embarked on an advertising campaign with an agency where the players who take part get paid to do so. Westmeath were vocal when their captain was the only team captain missing from the championship launch at Croke Park. That he might be able to make up the shortfall by getting involved in another ad campaign which pays with a Croke Park cheque is a revolution too.

One of the attendant partners in the revolution years was the modernisation of our media sources. Everywhere people turned in the new media landscape of the last 20 years they were hearing or reading about the local hurlers. This year each team's every game will be chronicled and analysed by teams and fans. We'll know huge chunks of information about most of the players and they'll all play enough games for this to become discourse among casual hurling fans.

Will there be enough superstars and seething competition to make sure the content is compelling? Many of the signs are positive. Limerick and Waterford could have wildly divergent seasons, which see them meet very late in the summer. Clare and Galway have reached the next level up. Even Offaly and Tipperary should be involved in good games. If perhaps it turns out that Cork and Kilkenny were bridging a period between one revolution and another, then we should be grateful to them.

If they manage to crush all-comers, we'll still be drawn back by the first game of the season, still seduced by whatever trends we hope points back to the mid-'90s. Finally the summer is here.