'This is about levelling up': Clare proposal to give unseeded Munster SFC counties home comfort

Banner chief Kieran Keating is looking to win a vote that will ensure home advantage for unseeded counties as part of a pushback against Munster's new league-based seeding system

Clare chairman Kieran Keating: “If you are going to give two counties an advantage by seeding them, then give some advantage to the other counties." Pic: Paul Phelan/Sportsfile

Munster GAA will vote next month on a Clare proposal to give unseeded counties in the province's senior football championship permanent home advantage at the semi-final and final stage of the competition, for as long as the new League-based seeding format is in place.

In advance of the new format taking effect from next year, Clare have tabled a proposal that, if passed, would deny Cork and Kerry home advantage in their respective Munster semi-finals whenever they are the province’s two seeded teams.

Moreover, the Clare motion also proposes that if any of the four unseeded counties were to win through to the provincial decider, they would also enjoy home advantage for the final.

After being postponed by 12 months because of player pushback, the 2027 Munster SFC will seed and separate at the semi-final stage the two highest-ranked counties from this year’s Allianz League, they being beaten Division 1 finalists Kerry and beaten Division 2 finalists Cork.

With these two counties currently two rungs higher on the league ladder than Clare in Division 3, it is locked in that Cork and Kerry will be the two seeded teams for the 2027 and ‘28 editions of the Munster SFC. Coming in on an initial three-year period, 2029 will be the sole Munster championship where there is a possibility of having a seeded county that is not the province’s two traditional powerhouses.

Clare chairman Kieran Keating, who previously labelled the League-based seeding system as “retrograde”, believes it only fair that Clare, Limerick, Tipp, and Waterford should receive a “leg up” after the very obvious leg up given to Cork and Kerry.

“If they are the two best teams, that means they will alternate the final between them every second year. It’ll be Killarney one year and Cork the next. They’ll have that big game as a home game every second year.

“As for the other counties, they are expected to promote and develop football with only having a home semi-final on alternate years with those counties and never having a Munster final because our path to the final has been made more difficult. There is no possibility of getting an easier route to the Munster final as the luck of the draw might have given us in three of the last four years,” Keating told the Irish Examiner.

“So if these counties are a step ahead of the rest, give the rest a leg up by giving them home advantage when they play either one of the two seeded counties.

“If you are going to give two counties an advantage by seeding them, then give some advantage to the other counties. And what we have come up with to give us and the other counties some equitable advantage is to propose that ‘if ye are that much better than us, lads, come and play us in our venue when we meet'.” 

With Munster bosses having proposed League-based seeding format to deliver more competitive Munster deciders, Keating has argued that they should also then want more competitive Munster semi-finals.

“It is an ask for Cork and Kerry to have to travel every year for their Munster semi-final while they are the seeded teams, but if they want to take advantage of the seeding, then that is what we’re asking of them.

“And if they say, ‘No, we’re not interested in that’, well then we’d be saying, dispense with the seeding and go back to an open draw and let it fall on home and away arrangements as before. Because if you’re going to take one advantage, give back some advantage. This proposal is about levelling up.” 

The proposal, as outlined above, also extends to Munster finals.

“Most of the time, the Munster final will be in Killarney or Cork, but if one of us happens to prove that the seeding isn’t a fair reflection and if we can take advantage of the semi-final home advantage we are proposing, then that would get us a home Munster final. 

"It won’t happen often, but it could occasionally. It’ll happen less now than it did in the recent past because the openness of the draw has been removed.” 

The proposal, which will be voted on at the July meeting of the Munster Council, requires 60% support.