A few weeks back, Parnell Park hosted what would be considered the second most prestigious GAA game of the season.

This was the NFL Division One final which for 2008 was contested by Derry and Kerry. These two sides had finished top of an eight team division which was comprised of the strongest sides in the country. No dispute that they were the two most consistent teams operating over the previous eight to ten weeks of the league campaign.

Derry emerged as decisive and convincing winners of this clash of the current leading duo.

They opened the game on a hesitant note but they finished it with a handsome and totally deserved victory.

In fact in a rousing second half performance they had delivered something of a lesson to the Kingdom.

Derry had served up evidence that they could well be genuine contenders for the prize above all prizes come next September. But if Derry are to appear at the September showdown and in all probability face up to Kerry once again, they will have to negotiate a decidedly more treacherous route to Croke Park, than the pampered Munster team.

For the All Ireland championship, for all its acknowledged qualities in providing the nation with an absorbing sporting spectacle over the summer months, is not played out on anything which could remotely be claimed as a level playing field.

This is a competition which sees the odds heavily stacked from the opening day in favour of a few.

For some counties the pitch is a stiff gradient from day one. For others, at least in the initial stages it is nothing more than a perfunctory stroll.

By the time that counties in Derry's situation get to around the half way mark they have expended a lot of energy. The wonder is that they have anything left in the tank to continue the assault on the summit.

Meanwhile others in a more privileged position are just getting limbered up for the really serious business as the summer moves towards the autumn.

The current situations which face Derry and Kerry are starkly contrasting. Derry will journey to Ballybofey on June 1st for an away tie with Donegal.

This is a Donegal team who were NFL champions in 2007, a Donegal team who are currently in the first division of the league and a Donegal who have a string of Ulster titles to mark their pedigree plus one All Ireland crown.

First round assignments don't come a great deal tougher than that. No surprise then that though Derry may be looked upon as pre match favourites, it is a tag which in reality carries little credibility.

There would be no great astonishment if Derry were to be defeated in the Donegal heartland. If they do come through unscathed that only brings them into a provincial semi final.

A week later, Kerry embark on their journey to September, but for them it will be nothing more than a casual stroll in their home ground of Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. For here the might of the Kingdom will have the miniscule threat of either Clare or Waterford to deal with.

For some counties the pitch is a stiff gradient from day one. For others, at least in the initial stages it is nothing more than a perfunctory stroll.

To be brutally honest the pick of Clare and Waterford wouldn't put it up to Kerry. So Kerry with their seventy or eighty plus Munster titles will canter their way into yet another provincial final and with that they have the guarantee of being in the final dozen in the All Ireland race.

Derry on the other hand after, for the sake of argument, beaten Donegal, have then to tackle either Monaghan or Fermanagh.

I know that there will be some cynics who will offer the suggestion that Monaghan and Fermanagh are of a similar calibre to Waterford/Clare.

But that is patently not the case. These two Ulster counties who will be contesting the league's second division come next Spring. Either of them will present Derry with a daunting task.

So for the current NFL Division one champions to reach the position which Kerry will arrive at with the minimum of endeavour, the league holders have two testing assignments.

How long will this imbalance last? Probably for many years to come for the provincial set up is traditionally one of the foundation blocks of the Association.

The GAA, despite its surprising ability to adopt change, may baulk at reforming this current arrangement, flawed though it is.

Though in the end it will happen for the first steps in making it come about have surfaced.

Because for change to occur it has first to be spoken about.

And this is what is happening among the GAA chattering classes.