Galway Hurling Review seeks to revamp club championship structure

A REVAMP of the county championship structures was the main recommendation to emerge from the Galway Hurling Review unveiled at theClayton Hotel in Ballybrit yesterday.

It is proposed the 20 existing senior teams play an open draw first-round game, the ten losers to meet in the second round, again in an open-draw. This leaves five losers who then go into a relegation group playing four games each with the bottom team relegated.

The 15 winners are joined by the intermediate champions and are split into four groups of four, with the top two in each group qualifying for the championship quarter-finals, the bottom two taking part in a new competition, the Shield.