“Could you condense that down to six weeks? That is not ideal either. You are talking about a long period of time for a small number of matches. If you tweak it do you lose out in that our culture is that the All-Ireland final takes place in September?”

Lohan is adamant the inter-county season must be shortened to end the raw deal currently endured by the club player. In his native Clare, there was a five-month break in club action last summer while Davy Fitzgerald’s side navigated All-Ireland glory.

“The club player could be better served. Some counties have excellent club structures in place, for example Kerry in football and Kilkenny in hurling. Other counties like Donegal and Clare haven’t been great. Galway haven’t been great either in getting fixtures played off at this time of year when hurling should be played.

“There’d be a certain disillusionment from club players during summer months. That is not just in Clare, that’s in a good number of counties. Trying to get the right club structure when you get to an All-Ireland final is difficult. Getting the structure right for club players is very important and I think the survey will show there are issues regarding club fixtures.”

Hurling review chairman Liam Sheedy said: “If it was easy to solve the fixtures debacle, it would have been solved before this. Club players are one issue and playing the bulk of games in October, November and December. The other issue is you have 12-14 weeks in summer where some players see no activity. That can’t be good for their development.”

The 26-question survey drawn up by the 10-person forum lists the introduction of the black card as one possible change to improve the game. Lohan, however, doesn’t see a requirement for a third card in hurling.

“We will wait and see, but I don’t see a huge appetite [for the black card]. Liam O’Neill pushed it more in the football in that there was a cynicism coming in to football.

“The level of the game is very high at the moment, it is at a very good standard so there isn’t need for huge change. I think there is always a few things; the advantage rule is in there now but in effect, it does not give an advantage to anyone. So maybe something like that might be tweaked to improve the game of hurling.”

Front door ‘easier’ for Banner

Provincial glory will be central to Clare’s back-to-back All-Ireland ambitions, according to Frank Lohan.

The two-time All-Ireland winner believes Davy Fitzgerald’s charges are more than capable of achieving the two-in-a-row, but only if the qualifier route is avoided. Clare have not annexed the Munster crown since 1998.

“If they could go through the front door it would probably be an easier format for them,” he said.

“Coming back the second year will you put in the same effort you put in the first year? You can get caught, but this group are very talented.

For Clare to get two matches in September was massive in the development of this group. I think they will have a great shot.

Lohan says the team’s age-profile will ensure outside pressure to retain Liam MacCarthy does not impact on their performances.

“A lot of it will be psychological, they are a young bunch so you would hope that won’t be an issue.”