Are football games now more exciting than hurling?

Has the football championship overshadowed its hurling counterpart over the past couple of months?

The thinking has to be that has been the case, more excitement, suspense, late drama and so on with the big ball while with the sliotar, too many games being done and dusted long before the final whistle.

The best, of course, may well around the corner in the remainder of the hurling championship even if there are only three games remaining in it now.

In comparison to past seasons, the hurling has not ignited to the same extent and last weekend's two All-Ireland quarter-finals certainly fell well short of what we might have been expecting.

In the first game on Saturday night, Clare's winning margin over Dublin was 16 points while on Sunday, Cork bettered that by 10 points, defeating Offaly by 26 points in a totally lopsided encounter that was as good as settled after just 16 minutes of the 70 when the Leesiders led by 3-7 to 0-2.

In fact, at that very early juncture in the game one could have departed Semple stadium in the knowledge that Cork would be playing Galway next Saturday week in the first of the two All-Ireland semi-finals.

Everything and anything pointed to a Cork victory in the days leading up to the game but did we envisage the stroll in the Thurles sun that unfolded before our eyes.

The bottom line in all of this and in these types of one-sided encounters you can only play what's in front of you and to give Ben O'Connor's side immense credit, they were ruthless in their demolition of a county that had performed with quite a bit of distinction in the Leinster championship.

With Clare dismantling Dublin, the issue of Munster hurling against Leinster comes into the conversation again and that's something to discuss later.

Cork's strength, athleticism, skill and the execution of their scores, particulaly, in the opening 35 minutes was a joy to behold, it was simply an awesome display of hurling in all its finery.

The Rebels had 14 different scorers on the scoresheet by the time referee Sean Stack called a welcome halt to the proceedings and that's a statistic that must have created a record for a game in the All-Ireland championship.

There might have been some slight surprise when the starting 15 was revealed, particularly the omission of William Buckley in the full-forward line but his replacement, Alan Walsh from Kanturk had helped himself to a brace of goals by the 20th minute, not bad for a player making his first championship start Brian Hayes and Shane Barrett were hugely conspicuous too in the opening half as a tsunami of scores arrived from all directions.

And the Cork management had the luxury of replacing both 10 minutes into the second-half, providing game time for a squad that has to be the most formidable in the land in an attacking sense.

Two of the replacements, Seamie Harnedy and Robbie O'Flynn split the sticks with a couple of well executed scores and you had others, Shane Kingston, Padraigh Power and the injured Deccie Daltton not figuring at all.

Brian Roche got the nod in midfield in the absence of Tommy O'Connell and Tim O'Mahony and fitted in well and posted two fine points into the bargain.

For a team like Offaly were, rank outsiders in the All-Ireland scheme of things it was nearly imperative that they got off to some sort of a positive start and remained in the game for as long as they could, certainly up to half-time.

But the complete opposite was the case, being crushed by a Cork tornado in the opening sequences and only pride to play for thereafter.

To give tham some bit of credit, they stuck at it and raised two green flags as the contest petered out to its inevitable conclusion.

Those goals did not matter in the slightest but, at the same time, their concessions might have annoyed the Cork sideline.

The word sloppy might be used to describe them but it was inevitable too that in a game that was long over as a meaningful contest, Cork might have slackened off a bit, their intensity levels dropping off, preserving their energy for the much bigger test that Galway are very likely to provide in the semi-final.

When Cork were belting in the goals, a half dozen just after half-time we might have been thinking that the ten that the county scored against Laois in 2011 might be bettered.

Four Cork defenders, Sean O'Donoghue, the Downey brothers and Mark Coleman were on the scoresheet too on a day when the vast gulf between the Munster team and a county that it could be said is still very early in its development on the journey back to where it was in the '80s and 90's was glaringly obvious.

Just where this hammering leaves them is very much a wait and see situation.

There will be a viewpoint too, of course, that will pose the question, what good does this type of game do for Cork?

Any of their A V B games behind closed doors in training would have been far more strenuous than what transpired in Tom Semple's field.

There was a lot of criticism of the Cork attack as a unit in the aftermath of the Munster final and the stats from that game were not impressive.

Therefore re-discovering their scoring touch will have done no harm at all and any type of competitive game has has to be beneficial in some way.

We'll have to wait and see how the longer lay-off since the Leinster final affects Galway and will Cork's more recent outing be a factor.

Again, the huge support that this Cork team is generating was in evidence, a sea of red at the town end and in the stands offering further proof that this might be the best supported team in red that we have ever seen.

For the game of hurling in general we had hoped for more competitive fare in both quarter-finals but that wasn't to be.

And genuine hurling followers would not have taken any great pleasure either in how humiliating it all became for Offaly.

The championship field is small enough each season and particularly at the business end of the season the product needs to be showcased in a better light.

But as we stated, the best may well be just around the corner and the collision of Clare and Limerick in one semi-final is certainly loaded with intrigue and potential, all the more so because the Banner County and Brian Lohan will relish taking on their neighbours again and ensuring that their earlier trouncing by John Kiely's men at the round-robin stage won't be repeated.

Clare were, by far, the much better team against Dublin but the goal chances that were afforded to the Leinster runners-up won't have pleased their management.

Eibhear Quilligan produced a display of goalkeeping as good as any we have seen down the years, he was majestic as the last line of defence.