On Gaelic Games: Winners and losers. At no time is the distinction more marked than on the day after an All-Ireland.

Cameras roll and tape recorders whirr to record all that went right for the new champions and what went wrong for the defeated finalists.

It must be one of the most difficult experiences that players can endure. Having to participate in the rituals of All-Ireland Monday when you're still sick at heart (and sometimes of stomach) after the previous day.

Croke Park's now apparently defunct Players Committee accomplished a few useful improvements in the lot of players but none could have occasioned more heartfelt gratitude than the abolition of the All-Ireland lunch the day after the final.

This event was nearly always held in the Burlington Hotel where, often as not, a team would be staying.

This meant that frequently the losing team had to report to the winners' hotel and file dutifully through the happy throngs, sit down, eat lunch and listen to speeches glorifying one of the greatest disappointments of their young lives.

Jim Carney, the Galway-based journalist and broadcaster, created something of a stir on Monday by arguing on RTÉ radio's Five Seven Live that there shouldn't be official homecomings for defeated finalists.

His point was that there's nothing to celebrate and that players, who are very hurt by a bruising experience, shouldn't have to be put on show when they come home.

At the Mansion House 13 years ago Dublin footballers, still reeling from the unexpected defeat by Donegal in the 1992 All-Ireland, made for a forlorn spectacle.

Firstly they had to crawl through rush-hour traffic on an open topped double-decker, objects of bemused glances from the commuting populace ("I was sure they lost"). Then they had to listen to Lord Mayor Gay Mitchell's attempt at raising morale, which included of an ill-advised suggestion that 30 other counties would love to swap places with Dublin.

Then team captain Tom Carr replied with a lugubrious speech that nailed the Lord Mayor's cheery contention.

"No one would want to swap places with us because no one wants to be a loser," he said.

These events are organised with the best of intentions but they must be an ordeal for an awful lot of players. On Galway Bay FM yesterday there were some interesting contributions on the subject with former player Dermot Fahy, who played in the last All-Ireland Galway lost to Cork, talking about how miserable he felt on the back of a truck in 1990.

Notably the calls to the station were overwhelmingly in favour of Carney's argument.

But what he had to say operated at a deeper level, which basically observes that teams shouldn't get too carried away with the good of it all just because they've been to a final and certainly not teams from a county that can boast as much talent as Galway.

There was a revealing moment on the radio at the weekend. Two family members from either camp were asked what defeat would mean. The Cork relative said that there would be devastation whereas the Galway counterpart felt that the team had done well to get to the final and had a bright future.

This isn't to suggest that the Galway players felt any happier in defeat than Cork would have done and it may be unfair to hang too much meaning on what players' kith and kin have to say before matches (hence their anonymity here) but the losing experience has to be bitter and feared if its motivational powers are to be maximised.

Not everyone wants to go to the lengths of Kieran McGeeney and watch every minute of the presentation so that the agony might drive him on, but there has to be a sense of unfinished business about a final defeat, particularly when, as in Galway's case, the match was there for them at certain junctures but they lacked the conviction to go for broke.

The easy response to such a defeat is to emphasise how promising the future is and how the experience will stand to them. But Sunday was a good chance and you suspect that if the positions were reversed, Cork wouldn't spurn the opportunities presented by hotly fancied opponents unable to shake them off and with only two of their forwards in demonstrably All-Ireland winning form.

Lessons have to be learned and applied. Four years ago the county was in the same situation, having lost an All-Ireland final after an encouraging season.

Nothing came of that until this year - for various reasons that have been much speculated on if not precisely identified.

It is a mystery to the rest of the country how a county that so regularly produces prodigies at minor level struggles to bring that talent to maturity at senior level.

Galway and Kilkenny are out in front of the field in terms of under-age success with five and six titles respectively over the past 10 years. The difference is that whereas Galway's preponderance is at minor, Kilkenny's is at under-21, a level that has more influence on senior prospects than under-18 does.

This is a critical stage for Galway hurling. Last week it was noticeable how upbeat the county felt about the future, ominously almost regardless of how the final went. This sense of well being was based on the impact of the new qualifier system and its guarantee of three preparatory matches before the All-Ireland series.

Manager Conor Hayes has again raised the prospect of the county competing in Leinster as a further assistance in integrating Galway into the competitive mainstream. Should this go ahead it wouldn't make enormous difference beyond giving the county the possibility of a non-lethal crack at Kilkenny.

But whatever is decided in that context the stark fact for Galway hurling is that the system has now been tweaked as much as it can be with their interest in mind. From now on it's up to them.