Hurling counties want Sunday All-Ireland quarter-finals

Galway's Brian Concannon with Tipperary's Eoghan Connolly in last year's All-Ireland SHC quarter-final. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom O’Hanlon

Liam MacCarthy Cup counties are drumming up support for the All-Ireland senior hurling quarter-finals to be staged on a Sunday this year.

No exact dates have been fixed for the games that are due to be played on the weekend of June 20/21, the same as the Tailteann Cup semi-finals and Round 3 of the All-Ireland SFC.

However, with just five senior inter-county matches after the Munster final, there is a growing effort for hurling to be given as big a platform as possible.

The number of post-provincial games was reduced by two when the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals were disbanded. The schedule of the Joe McDonagh Cup remains the same as before and will conclude when the final precedes the Leinster SHC final in Croke Park on June 6.

Since the Tailteann Cup was introduced in 2022, the last four games have been given prime Sunday afternoon billing while the hurling matches have taken place a day earlier. The last time the All-Ireland SHC quarter-finals were organised for a Sunday was 2019.

An 11th hour attempt to flip the fixtures in 2024 when the quarter-finals in which Wexford were involved clashed with their staging of Féile failed to receive sufficient support at an emergency meeting of Central Council.

RTÉ are due to televise the hurling quarter-finals and the Tailteann Cup semi-finals along with one of the four All-Ireland SFC Round 3 elimination matches, which are effectively All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals.

It’s a hectic weekend of championship action during which GAA+ will have three of the last-12 Sam Maguire Cup matches and first call on what they consider the best of them.

It is possible they could be screening some, if not all of them on Saturday, June 20 just as RTÉ are contractually obliged to carry the second tier Tailteann Cup matches.

RYDER CUP LINK-UP

Meanwhile, a proposal to stage the National Hurling League final in September 2027 to coincide with the Ryder Cup is now expected to be shelved.

The seven Division 1A counties next season had been asked to consider the move, which would have seen the game being played in TUS Gaelic Grounds on Tuesday, September 14 as part of the official programme of the Europe v US two-day golf tournament in Adare Manor startng three days later.

At their Cork County Board meeting this week, the negative consequences of the move were outlined by members of the county board executive.

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