Jarlath Burns to set up group to reform inter-county structures, with hurling set for tweaks

Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael Jarlath Burns with hurlers, from left, Billy Ryan of Kilkenny, Darragh Gray of Dublin, Fintan Burke of Galway, Jake Morris of Tipperary, Cian Lynch of Limerick, Podge Delaney of Laois, Niall O'Leary of Corek and Paul Dolan of Kildare with the Liam MacCarthy cup at the national launch of the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Series at Kinnity Castle, Offaly. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

GAA president Jarlath Burns is to set up a group to review the structure and scheduling of the senior inter-county championships.

Burns gave the commitment at the meeting of Central Council in Croke Park on Saturday.

As a new All-Ireland senior football championship format will be commencing next year, any structural change is likely to come in the hurling championship where the All-Ireland preliminary hurling quarter-finals could be disbanded completely or the Joe McDonagh Cup finalists removed and replaced with the fourth-placed teams in the Leinster and Munster championships.

In that case, Wexford instead of Laois would have faced Tipperary and Clare, not Kildare taken on Dublin this past weekend for All-Ireland quarter-final places against Galway and Limerick.

Instead, less than a week after their McDonagh Cup final, runners-up Laois lost to Tipperary by 23 points and Dublin defeated second tier winners Kildare by 21 points.

In the six years of the preliminary quarter-finals, MacCarthy Cup sides have won 11 out of 12 times with an average winning margin of 17.9 points.

Last week, Burns indicated the McDonagh Cup could run parallel to the MacCarthy Cup instead of being run off in time to feed into it. “If you do away with the preliminary quarter-finals, there are advantages to that because you could stretch out the Joe McDonagh Cup and you could make that a longer competition.”

Although the Munster Council will be loath to alter the jeopardy associated with their championship that again pulled in record attendances and gate receipts this year, the likes of Clare, Waterford and Wexford may be in favour of such an amendment. A relegation play-off between the bottom teams in Leinster and Munster may also be considered.

The expected return of provincial final replays after extra-time, set to be debated at Special Congress in October, would have to be factored into any structure or scheduling changes. Simply ending the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals could mean up to a five-week gap for the third-placed team in Munster between their last provincial match and All-Ireland quarter-final.

A compromise may come in the final round of the provincial championships being pushed out to June. However, that is unlikely to happen until 2027 at the earliest as Burns confirmed concerts have been booked for Croke Park in August of next year and therefore All-Ireland finals won’t be staged in that month.

Yet there is growing support for the inter-county season to conclude in the eighth month of the year as Burns acknowledged at last week’s All-Ireland senior hurling championship launch.

In his Munster SHC final programme notes last week, provincial chairman Tim Murphy wrote of the same. “The split season has generally been effective with inter-county players in particular expressing high levels of satisfaction. Having spoken to clubs, counties, players, managers, administrators and supporters over the last number of weeks and months, there is however a strong desire for the season to be extended.

“I am confident a comprehensive national review – engaging all relevant stakeholders and considering the full range of perspectives – can produce a well-balanced extension to the playing season that meets the needs of all involved.” 

The following day, Leinster chairman Derek Kent, who too has called for an August finish to the championships, wrote of the lack of hurling being played in summer. “Almost 60% of our senior hurling teams in Leinster will have no hurling in June, which surely demonstrates a troubling lack of hurling promotion.

“On the contrary, over 91% of our football teams, all but one of the 12 in the province, will play football this month. That clearly highlights an imbalance in the playing of our games.”