John Fogarty: Munster SHC has become cannibalistic and too competitive

Here is my proposal to rebalance the Liam MacCarthy Cup by providing an extra All-Ireland series spot to a Munster team

DOWN AND OUT: Liam Cahill’s Waterford didn’t have the luxury of unloading on an inferior team in Munster. ©INPHO/Ken Sutton

Title: To rebalance the Liam MacCarthy Cup. 

Proposal: To provide an extra All-Ireland series spot to a Munster team.

Method(s): 1. Take one of the qualifying spots in the Leinster senior hurling championship and give it to Munster. The top four teams in Munster progress to the All-Ireland series along with the best two sides in Leinster. The third and fourth-placed Munster sides face the Joe McDonagh Cup finalists in the preliminary rounds.

2. Retain Leinster’s three spots but only award the winners of the McDonagh Cup a preliminary quarter-final berth and give the runners-up's place to the fourth-placed Munster side. They face the third-placed county in Leinster, the equivalent in Munster facing the McDonagh Cup victors.

Rationale: The Munster SHC has proven to be a superior championship to the eastern competition. It has produced the last two All-Ireland final pairings. In 2020 and ‘21, 10 of the 11 Munster-Leinster championship games have been won by the Munster team, the exception being Galway’s 2020 All-Ireland quarter-final win over Tipperary. 

Only Galway and Kilkenny, this year’s top two in Leinster, have beaten Munster opposition in the championship since 2016 when Wexford defeated Cork. 

However, in its round-robin guise, the Munster SHC has become cannibalistic and too competitive, considerably more so than the Leinster SHC, which includes the teams that finished second from bottom in Division 1, Group B and the Division 2 winners. 

Unlike in Munster, there are opportunities against them to rotate and rest players. Yet the rewards for emerging from the provinces are the same. As a result, the integrity of the All-Ireland is undermined.

Referees: John Mullane, 2018: “I think this new championship is designed for a Leinster team to push on and win the All-Ireland.”

Tony Kelly, 2022: “Y ou just need to be in that (top) three whatever number you are, you need to be in that three and assess it then at the end, whether you’re in a Munster final (for the top two finishers) or heading to a qualifier to get into a quarter-final.”

Dissents and responses: “ Tipperary and Waterford don’t deserve to progress”

Fail to win a game and you can certainly have no complaints about exiting the Liam MacCarthy Cup in May but Waterford, for all their difficulties with the round-robin structure, are a mite unfortunate. 

Kudos to Wexford, they were only beaten once but their heavy win over Laois proved to be the difference in them advancing ahead of Dublin. 

Waterford didn’t have the luxury of unloading on an inferior team (as an aside, if the league continues to be disregarded as it was this year should the winners be rewarded in the championship?)

“Wasn’t the final round of the Leinster SHC more exciting?”

One game was, yes, but up to then the height of the hype was a handshake. So much of the last day’s drama has to do with the sequencing of games, which adds an artificial element to the conclusion of the competition. 

Like 2018 and ‘19, the final round pairings were Kilkenny v Wexford and Dublin v Galway. 

Munster doesn’t need to “fix” the draw to ensure final day drama – by the way, next year’s last round will see Limerick host Cork and Tipperary entertain Waterford, a reverse of this year’s opening fixtures. 

In 2023, the first round pits Waterford against Limerick in Walsh Park if it is available and Clare versus Tipperary in Ennis.

“Limerick haven’t lost any of their last 10 Munster games, winning nine of them.”

True indeed but not exactly a damning statistic of the province when Cork and Waterford recovered to face them a second time in the 2021 and ‘20 All-Ireland finals. Tipperary, the last county to beat them in Munster, revived themselves after their 2019 Munster final thumping to win the All-Ireland, beating a Kilkenny team who had downed Limerick.

Disclaimer: This proposal does not fully support the protectionist move led by Cork to try and avoid a Munster SHC team being relegated from the Liam MacCarthy Cup. 

If Kerry beat Antrim in Saturday week’s Joe McDonagh Cup, they shouldn’t have to play another game to qualify for the Munster SHC if they feel they are ready to make the ascension next season. 

Laois and Tipperary are hardly comparable when their games are weighted. A relegation play-off between the two? It’s a fairer suggestion than what Kerry are being asked to do next month.

Conclusion: The Munster Council can’t simply be satisfied that they are in possession of hurling’s best competition. If it is that good, which it is, and that cut-throat, which is most certainly is the case, then they should fight for it to have a greater standing in the All-Ireland. It is most definitely a championship in a championship but if it is to retain its vaunted status it can’t continue to eat itself.

Have Waterford stomach for more tough love?

It was a more reflective Liam Cahill who appeared in front of the media after Sunday’s championship exit. 

“I have no problem in saying that it’s my responsibility to have them right too, it’s my job to get them right when they hit the white lines to perform and I have to look at that as well.”

Contrast that to how he felt post the defeat to Cork last Sunday week: “Just not acceptable,” he remarked of the players’ performances. 

“Not acceptable to the big Waterford support that came here. It's terribly, bitterly disappointing.” 

Or following the Limerick game: “Did we really deserve over the hour? I’m not 100% sure. My initial feeling is we didn’t if we did have to sneak something.”

Or after the surprise Munster reverse against Clare last year: “I’m going to look at it really stringently and rigorously because ultimately too many lads failed today,” he said before adding, “I’ll be rewarding any player that puts their hand up over the next fortnight or three weeks for a qualifier because at this stage I’ve nothing to lose.“

Losing twice to Limerick in his debut championship in 2020, Cahill also refrained from sugarcoating the defeats, refusing to claim any moral victory. 

His frankness is typical of the approach he has taken with this team on the training field where they have been pushed to their limits but is there a shelf-life to tough love? 

The word is there was little downtime following the Limerick game earlier this month after a heavy schedule going back to the league.

Cahill has another season remaining in his current agreement. After guiding Waterford to only their fourth Division 1 title, his stock is high. 

It’s not as if he fuelled the expectations placed on the team this year but the all stick, no carrot philosophy may need readjusting if he is to take charge for a fourth season.

Inter-county season isn't squeezed

So what is it? Populism, as Dónal Óg Cusack has described the determination of the GAA to create more space for the clubs in the calendar season. 

Or ignorance, which would be an appropriate word to articulate some pundits’ claims about the championship starts in counties that have exited the All-Ireland SHC.

Populism is a silly word to use when it’s predominantly media figures and GAA followers who aren’t members of clubs that are calling for the inter-county season to expand. If arguments like those are going to be made, they must be accompanied by solutions as to where else club championships can find breathing space.

Limerick’s hurlers have plenty of that right now. Three weeks to a Munster final, they will have another four to an All-Ireland semi-final if they beat Clare. After five weeks without a game between the league and defeating Cork, Kerry’s footballers are back this weekend after three weeks. Win against Limerick and they, like the other three provincial winners, have a four-week wait.

Yes, the provincial hurling championships begin too early and its proximity to the conclusion of the league is too tight. This column has highlighted how a later start coupled with the All-Ireland hurling final being played a week after the football decider would see more games played in the better weather. 

A shift to August All-Ireland finals appears to be on the cards too but the inter-county season isn’t squeezed for everybody.

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