Séamus Flanagan: It's criminal not to have Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny hurling in June

HURLING CROSSROADS: Former Limerick Minor Hurler, Séamus Flanagan, at the finals preview of the 2026 Electric Ireland GAA All-Ireland Minor Championships. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Séamus Flanagan believes it's 'criminal' that hurling superpowers like Tipperary and Kilkenny exited the Championship in May, and has made a strong plea for a new backdoor series.

The five-time Liam MacCarthy Cup winner with Limerick reckons 'hurling is at a crossroads right now' and that the success of the Munster round-robin format over the years may have 'glossed over' problems elsewhere.

Flanagan, released from the Limerick panel last winter, said the fact that there were just five games left in the All-Ireland SHC beyond the Joe McDonagh Cup final weekend was 'bananas' and 'outrageous'.

And he highlighted the heavy subsequent All-Ireland quarter-final losses for Dublin and Offaly as more red flags.

Flanagan, speaking ahead of the Electric Ireland All-Ireland MHC final this weekend between his native Limerick and Tipp, is hoping that the newly convened Hurling Expert Advisory Group can address the problems.

"You might say it's drastic but I think that hurling is at a crossroads right now," said Flanagan. "I think football was always the poor man's cousin of hurling. I thought the hurling championship was always immense but maybe did Munster hurling gloss over that a little bit?

"In football, the FRC came in and they tweaked the game a little bit and now you have maybe that top tier, and the middle tier were able to get up to that top tier and even the playing field for so many teams.

"You look at it on the weekend just gone by, there were so many teams that could have scraped over the line in the football championship.

"In hurling, they got rid of the preliminary quarter-finals because there was such disparity, and because there was such a big gap between the Joe McDonagh winners and losers, and the teams that finished in third place in Munster and Leinster, and then reverted back to quarter-finals, and look at the gap that was there still.

"They were speaking on The Sunday Game, they were talking about it was a positive year for Offaly. How can you say it was a positive year for Offaly when they go out and Cork rack up that score (6-25 to 2-11) against them in a quarter-final?

"I understand they got that third place play-off but that was nearly, and without sounding disrespectful towards Offaly, it was nearly by default because Kilkenny were so far off the mark.

"So there is huge change that needs to be implemented in hurling and I understand the older generation and the traditionalists would say, 'Leave the game as it is, it will come right again'. But I think we're at a stage now where I'm not so sure that's the case."

Electric Ireland are pairing up former Minor Legends with current players to give the ultimate insight into the last 15 years of Minor. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan.

Kildare were relegated from the Leinster championship while Kilkenny and Wexford failed to advance to the All-Ireland series. Tipp and Waterford suffered the earliest possible exit in Munster.

"If we keep doing what we're doing year in, year out then you're going to have the same three, four, five teams competing the whole time," said Flanagan. "And what happens to the rest of them? Even to not have Tipperary and Waterford hurling in June, it's criminal. Kilkenny the same."

Flanagan feels that football has hit upon a Championship structure that works well, with a provincial competition followed by an All-Ireland series that allows teams to lose a game.

"If you put the offer there for Kilkenny this year and said to Kilkenny, 'Okay, you didn't finish in the top three, you're not going to progress out of Leinster but there's going to be a backdoor option for an All-Ireland series', an open draw backdoor for you to get back into the Championship, would you take it? Would Waterford take it? Would Tipperary take it? 100 percent.

"We'd have a better hurling championship because those teams would be able to go away, refocus and accept that the provincial side of things is over. It would be, let's refocus and put in the work. I really did feel that Waterford were building."

On his own inter-county career, the former All-Star said he hasn't drawn a line under it just yet.

"Whatever may come down the line, we take it one step at a time," said the father-of-four. "If that opportunity was to come about again, I'd sit down with my wife and we'd trash that out."