The last thing Séamus Flanagan wants to sound bitter or angry about is the way he was cut from the Limerick hurling panel, partly because he believes there might still be a route back in. He is however far more damning when describing the current format of championship hurling as both “bananas” and “criminal”.A five-time All-Ireland winner and 2021 All Star, Flanagan had been part of John Kiely’s team for eight seasons, before being told last October he was surplus to requirements. At 28, he continues to play with his club Feohanagh-Castlemahon, also taking on a coaching role with Boherlahan-Dualla in Tipperary, but he’s not yet saying never on a possible return to the Limerick set-up.“I suppose from my perspective the decision was taken out of my hands,” says Flanagan. “I wasn’t going to sit there and beg John Kiely for my place on an intercounty team. Number one that wouldn’t be any avail to me, and number two that wouldn’t be my character.“There was nothing that I was going to say or do that was going to change his mind at that point in time. And I suppose where’s the benefit of me looking back with regret or anger on the situation, when I had so much to be thankful for.“I look back on my career, I was phenomenally lucky to be involved with the team for eight years, had success collectively with the group and individually. If I hadn’t been successful, that mightn’t be the case ... but I look back on it with fond, fond memories.“But look, I’m only 28, and to say that there’s a line drawn under it would be maybe foolish from my perspective. Whatever may come down the line, we’ll take it one step at a time. And if that opportunity was to come about again, I’d sit down with my wife and we’d trash that out, weigh up the pros and cons of it, because it is a lifestyle thing.”Speaking as an ambassador for the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor championships, Flanagan has also been involved with some hurling punditry with RTÉ. Not that watching Limerick’s recent Munster hurling final win over Cork was in any way unbearable.“Maybe the punditry lightened the blow, but it was never something that affected me that much, no. If it was an individual sport, okay well and good, but it’s a team game, and no one’s bigger than the team.”Seamus Flanagan of Limerick poses for a portrait with the Liam MacCarthy Cup during the national launch of the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship at the Michael Cusack Centre in Carran, Clare. Photograph: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile The state of hurling, however, is another matter, and Flanagan is adamant the current championship format is doing the game no favours whatsoever. Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny had no championship matches beyond May 24th, and there are only now only three games of championship hurling left beyond the summer solstice.“You might say it’s drastic, but I think that hurling is at a crossroads right now. I think football was always the poor man’s cousin of hurling. I thought the hurling championship was always immense, and maybe did Munster hurling gloss that over a little bit?“Look at the weekend just gone by, there were so many teams that could have scraped over that line in the football championship. In the hurling, they got rid of the preliminary quarter-finals because there was such disparity, such a big gap between the Joe McDonagh winners and losers and the team that finished in third place in Munster and Leinster.“They reverted back to a quarter-final and look at the gap that was there still. They were speaking on The Sunday Game that it was a positive year for Offaly. How can you say it was a positive year for Offaly when they go out and Cork rack up that score against them (6-25 to 2-11) in a quarter-final?“So there’s huge change that needs to be implemented in hurling. I understand that the older generation within hurling and the traditionists would say leave the game as it is, it will come right again, but if we keep doing what we’re doing, year in, year out, you’re going to have the same three four five teams competing the whole time.“To not have Tipperary and Waterford hurling in June, it’s criminal. Kilkenny the same.“How do you grow the game in Waterford if Waterford people don’t see their county hurling beyond the month of May? It’s a big worry for me and look, it’s nothing new.”