GAA president Jarlath Burns has raised the prospect of abolishing the All-Ireland hurling preliminary quarter-finals. These are the route through which the finalists in the Tier 2 championship, the McDonagh Cup, are allowed to contest the Tier 1 MacCarthy Cup by playing against the third-placed counties in the Leinster and Munster championships.
Writing in Sunday’s All-Ireland final match programme, Burns had this to say.
“As we look forward, we must also be reflective. There is a necessary and timely conversation to be had about the structure of our senior hurling championship, specifically regarding the Joe McDonagh Cup finalists entering the All-Ireland series through a preliminary quarter-final.
“While the current system offers a pathway, it may also place an unfair burden on teams whose seasons have already been long and challenging. If we were to remove the preliminary quarter-final, we would open the door for a longer and more meaningful Joe McDonagh Cup competition – a competition that deserves to stand proudly on its own, with adequate time, coverage, and respect.
RM Block
“These are discussions that must be held with fairness, vision, and the future in mind.”
This course of action has been opposed by counties who regularly compete in the Tier 2 championship.
In the years since the current format was introduced, only one McDonagh county has actually won a preliminary quarter-final – Laois, who in 2019 defeated Dublin before losing to Tipperary in the quarter-finals.
Earlier in this championship, the McDonagh finalists were Kildare, who won the title, and Laois. Dublin beat the former 3-25 to 0-13, whereas the latter lost to Tipperary by 3-32 to 0-18.
The abolition of this facility has been advocated by the Central Competitions Control Committee, who opposed its introduction at the special congress in 2017 when the round-robin format was introduced for the following year.
Renewed focus on the system has come with the arrival of the split season and the resulting search for extra weeks in the calendar.
