The phrase 'hurling Championship structure' is likely to be a well-used one over the comings weeks after GAA President Aogán Ó Fearghaíl revealed that plans are in the pipeline to introduce a round-robin into the existing provincial system.
The proposed change, which is to be discussed at a meeting next month, would see a group stage introduced into the Munster and Leinster championships.
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There would be one group of five teams in each province, with each team playing two home and two away games. The top two sides would progress to provincial finals.
The third placed side in each group would advance to an All-Ireland quarter-final, along with the loser of the provincial decider. Provincial champions would continue to advance directly to an All-Ireland semi-final.
Ó Fearghaíl made the announcement on RTÉ's Sunday Sport.
A further 'development' round-robin is also reportedly being planned, and although details of that remain to be seen, it is likely to involve teams from the existing round-robin stage of the Leinster Championship.
However, former Wexford manager Liam Griffin has called for people to step back and look at the bigger picture before introducing changes to the Championship that may be in place for a number of years.
Speaking on the RTÉ Sport GAA podcast the All-Ireland winning manager, who is also heavily involved in the Club Players' Association, said his organisation wanted to see a "master plan" put in place.
"Why can’t we stand back, look at the whole thing in its entirety and come up with a master plan?" he asked.
He said "the history of the GAA has been continuous incremental change" - adding that "incremental change on top of incremental change is not a strategy."
Griffin also called for the issue of hurling structures to be dealt with in isolation, rather than as a result of changes to the football championship.
He said the CPA want a Special Congress looking at fixtures as part of the Hurling Congress, instead of a knee-jerk reaction to the football.
Former Kilkenny goalkeeper David Herity echoed Griffin's calls for the powers that be to look at the bigger picture.
Speaking on the same podcast, he said Croke Park are "rushing through a system" to change the structure.
"I know they're trying to breathe life back into it, but as Liam says I think a bigger picture could have been properly investigated here."
Herity, who currently manages the Dublin camogie team, pointed to the female game as inspiration for a structure that works.
"They play off the provincial championships as a separate competition in May, and then start off the round-robin competition in June and July."
That round-robin consists of two groups of five teams, with the top team in each group advancing to All-Ireland semi-finals while the second and third-placed teams take part in two quarter-finals.
He said this would be far better than "just trying to breathe life into something that has been dying over the last few years – the Leinster championship especially."
Herity also took the opportunity to highlight issues within the various club championships around the country.
In particular he looked at Dublin, where teams that lose the first round of the football championship drop into a B competition.
"You lose a championship match in April and that's basically your year over, championship wise - you play the rest of the year in the league.
"Even the Dublin hurling championship, they played two games there within the bones of seven days and they won’t play another [championship] match for months.
"Something needs to be done, it’s ridiculous for a club player to be playing two matches within a week then waiting for months, depending on when the inter-county team loses.
"What you are generally finding now is that people are nearly wishing their county team get beaten because they just want to play off their club championships.
"It’s not the way GAA should be and what you're brought up to play. People are resenting the game nearly at the moment."
