'I wouldn't I agree with it. You've to earn your right': Lee opposes Munster SFC seeding

Limerick football manager Jimmy Lee. Pic: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho

Limerick football manager Jimmy Lee has expressed opposition to the proposal to seed the Munster SFC based on league status, insisting that counties must earn the right to a provincial semi-final spot and shouldn’t have it handed to them.

The proposed change is that the two highest-ranked counties from the league receive byes to the Munster semi-final and, additionally, be kept apart in that semi-final draw.

If the league-based seeding is voted in later this month, Cork and Kerry would be the seeded pair for 2026 on account of Cork’s fifth-place finish in Division 2 earlier this year bettering Clare’s third-place finish in Division 3.

The current structure, which has been in place since 2015, seeds the previous year’s Munster finalists. 

Clare and Kerry, as a result of reaching the 2024 Munster decider, were given semi-final byes for the 2025 draw, albeit they could still have been paired against one another in that last-four stage.

“I wouldn't agree with it,” said Jimmy Lee when asked for his views on the recommended change that will go before the full Munster Council later this month.

“Why wouldn't I agree with it? You've to earn your right. If it was the same across all four provinces, I'd probably be fine with it. But if you were to look at it coldly, who would be seeded next year? It would be Cork and Kerry. Our neighbours Clare, Munster finalists this year and for the two years before that, they have done nothing wrong. So for me, it is a no.

“I'd be happy out with that [current system]. Clare, and I am just using them as an example, they have worked so hard to get there and maintain it, they have been consistent for years.

“They've earned the right to be there and that's the only issue I'd have with it. You've got to earn these rights. You can't hand them out.” 

Although Munster GAA have yet to clarify the motivation behind the proposal, it is understood to be linked to a sharp fall in Munster final attendances across the three most recent Kerry-Clare deciders, as well as the one-sided nature of two of those games.

Clare chairman Kieran Keating recently told the Irish Examiner that putting Cork and Kerry up on a “pedestal” will do nothing to improve the standard of football in Munster.

“Improving the standard in Cork is not going to fix Munster football, it is by helping other counties, giving a leg up to other counties, rather than putting Cork and Kerry on the pedestal up above them and saying to the others, you fight for the scraps.” 

With Clare and Limerick set to vote against the proposal, they would require similar opposition from Tipperary and Waterford to ensure the status quo is retained in 2026.