Carlow seek Leinster change

No county in the Leinster senior hurling championship should be guaranteed a quarter-final place, insists Carlow chairman Michael Meaney.

With the support of the Leinster Council, the county will bring forward a motion to next month’s Congress to alter the competition’s new structure.

From this year, a qualifying group has been added whereby five counties — Antrim, Carlow, Laois, London and Westmeath — will play off on a round robin basis to earn two quarter-final spots, with the bottom team relegated to the Christy Ring Cup.

Unlike last season, only the two qualifiers will have a second opportunity in the qualifiers.

Next year a further team from that group will drop to the lower level with the third placed team meeting the Christy Ring Cup winners for a place in the qualifying section in 2016.

It means the likes of Kerry, Down or Wicklow could be in the Leinster SHC in two years’ time.

Carlow are proposing that should a qualifying team beat Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Offaly or Wexford in a quarter-final they take their confirmed quarter-final spot the following season and the beaten team begins their season in the round robin section.

“At present, 10 teams are guaranteed tier one status in hurling,” said Meaney. “You can play your way into the Championship but there is no way of playing your way out.

“Surely if a team is good enough to win a Leinster quarter-final, they should be rewarded. Say, for argument’s sake, we were to beat Dublin or Wexford — we propose they would go into the round robin instead of us.

“The second part of our proposal is that the number of qualifying teams stay at four each year. It’s supposed to drop to three in 2016 but it would easier to run with four and there are no bye weekends.

“We vehemently objected to the new structure when it was voted in at last year’s Congress, but the Uachtarán (Liam O’Neill) promised it would be reviewed.”

The Leinster Council unanimously backed the motion at a meeting last month. Martin Skelly, who finished up his chairmanship on Saturday, explained they want to enshrine the involvement of the seven counties from the province currently competing.

“We currently facilitate Galway and Antrim and this year we have London, but the fear is we could lose one or two Leinster counties to the Christy Ring Cup.

“But there should be no sacred nesting for any of the teams. If they are good enough they will keep their quarter-final place, but if they are beaten there should be a reward for the qualifying county.”