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I wonder if there is enough value to doing well in proposed 'Leinster SHC Group 1' - lose 3 group games, advance to Lein QF; win all 3, earn a QF bye instead?
Like Munster, perhaps it would have been best to have 2 home/2 away ties per team.
I'd amend the Proposal as follows:
✓ In lieu of Leinster 8/McDonagh 4, I'd go with 7/5,
respectively
✓ 'McDonagh 5' round robin, like Munster
✓ 'Leinster 7' schedule = 'Mid 3' (seeds
3,4,5) plays the 'Other 4' (1,2,6,7); plus
1v2 & 6v7
✓ 'Leinster table top 4 of 7' to Leinster SFs; and
'Leinster 6th & 7th' v 'McDonagh top 2 of
5' in McDonagh Cup SFs
✓ 'McDonagh 4th v 5th' in Relegation Final
What do you think?
omahant (USA) - Posts: 3584 - 09/10/2026 00:50:55
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Replying To omahant: "I wonder if there is enough value to doing well in proposed 'Leinster SHC Group 1' - lose 3 group games, advance to Lein QF; win all 3, earn a QF bye instead?
Like Munster, perhaps it would have been best to have 2 home/2 away ties per team.
I'd amend the Proposal as follows:
✓ In lieu of Leinster 8/McDonagh 4, I'd go with 7/5,
respectively
✓ 'McDonagh 5' round robin, like Munster
✓ 'Leinster 7' schedule = 'Mid 3' (seeds
3,4,5) plays the 'Other 4' (1,2,6,7); plus
1v2 & 6v7
✓ 'Leinster table top 4 of 7' to Leinster SFs; and
'Leinster 6th & 7th' v 'McDonagh top 2 of
5' in McDonagh Cup SFs
✓ 'McDonagh 4th v 5th' in Relegation Final
What do you think?" Could you not make it more complicated!?
Seanfan (Roscommon) - Posts: 964 - 09/10/2026 11:31:34
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Replying To Seanfan: "Could you not make it more complicated!?" From the Hurling Games Intelligence Unit (GIU)
Maybe one other thing that stood out was that the Liam McCarthy series was relatively non-competitive.
"When you get to those quarter-finals, semi-finals, final, those games are being won by big margins, and apart from Clare and Limerick this year, the other four games were won by really big margins, and maybe there's just something to be looked at there. It's a small sample size, but it's something worth watching over a period of time to see if that trend continues.
Seanfan (Roscommon) - Posts: 964 - 09/10/2026 13:05:27
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Replying To legendzxix: "I'm aware of the temporary 6 team arrangement alright. It can remain. There is an argument that if Kerry have to win the Joe Mac to go from the Joe Mac group of 4 to Munster, that Kerry should at least be given 2 years in Munster. Kerry would have to work harder than Leinster rivals to actually get promoted to their province but the compromise would be at least 2 years.
...and basically yes - if Kerry make a Joe Mac final, that should automatically trigger a wild card playoff between the Joe Mac losing semi finalists for the 4th spot in Leinster Group B.
If Kerry won the Joe Mac - the Joe Mac relegation final loser should get a reprieve. The Ring Cup group should drop from 6 teams to 5 teams so that the Joe Mac group retains 4 while Munster is expanded to 6.
There will have to be GAA solutions to a GAA problem. As Jarlath Burns said before one of the All Ireland draws - never try to apply logic to the way the GAA works!" Apologies - I missed how your original post on this thing said "If Kerry make the McDonagh Cup final in the future - Kerry should be allowed into Munster", which is obviously a different thing from the current rule of being allowed into Munster if they win the McDonagh Cup Final.
But yes, Kerry is an anomaly here all right. Just making it to the McDonagh Final would be enough for any other county to qualify for provincial competition, so it should be enough for Kerry too. But where do they go?
Obviously they go into Munster if they win. But if this proposal passes and nothing else changes, what happens if Kerry lose a McDonagh Final? Do they go into Leinster, same as other loser of the final would?
And would we have a situation then where they might go into Leinster one year. go into Munster some other time, and then be back in Leinster again sometime after that?
And going to speak bluntly here, and absolutely no disrespect intended, but realistically - what would the attitude of the other Munster counties be to the possibility of the Munster Championship admitting Kerry as McDonagh runners-up?
Would there be an attitude of "they're not even good enough to win that thing, why should we let them in with us" ?
Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 4122 - 09/10/2026 13:13:38
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Yeah, I'd have to cast doubt too on the assertion that the McDonagh Cup "has brought teams up considerably". I've looked at the record over the past five seasons of the teams who've been in Leinster by virtue of winning it, i.e. Laois, Westmeath, Antrim, Carlow, Offaly, and Kildare.
Some notable results along the way all right, such as Westmeath first drawing with and then beating Wexford, Antrim beating Wexford, and Carlow drawing with Kilkenny. But overall, over the past five seasons, there's been 40 matches between a "McDonagh Cup" team and an "always in Leinster" team, and the record is:
Played 40, won 3, drew 5, lost 32, score difference -498.
Of the 32 defeats, only five have been by single-digit margins, and two of them were achieved in 2025 by Offaly, who it's probably fair to say are the best of the "McDonagh Cup teams". So much so that it's probably not fair to even regard them as one any more.
Basically, the records show that when one of Laois/Westmeath/Antrim/Carlow/Kildare go out to play one of Kilkenny/Galway/Dublin/Wexford, anything better than a 10-point defeat is an outlier." I think the structure has been working. If you go back further there would always be one or two teams that would close up from time to time before dropping back. I think it is much more sustained now. You could replace Laois next year with any of the McDonagh Cup teams and the results would be similar.
And when you look at the scoring difference of the 6th team over the years since it was added (Laois -92; Westmeath -80; Carlow -48; Antrim -77; Kildare -68) it has been trending down.
Theres a lot of work going on in these counties to keep getting closer. Yes - it will take a few more years before we see one of the "always in Leinster" teams genuinely in trouble but I'd expect to see this within 5 years.
brianb (Kildare) - Posts: 512 - 09/10/2026 13:48:09
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Replying To Pikeman96: "Yeah, I'd have to cast doubt too on the assertion that the McDonagh Cup "has brought teams up considerably". I've looked at the record over the past five seasons of the teams who've been in Leinster by virtue of winning it, i.e. Laois, Westmeath, Antrim, Carlow, Offaly, and Kildare.
Some notable results along the way all right, such as Westmeath first drawing with and then beating Wexford, Antrim beating Wexford, and Carlow drawing with Kilkenny. But overall, over the past five seasons, there's been 40 matches between a "McDonagh Cup" team and an "always in Leinster" team, and the record is:
Played 40, won 3, drew 5, lost 32, score difference -498.
Of the 32 defeats, only five have been by single-digit margins, and two of them were achieved in 2025 by Offaly, who it's probably fair to say are the best of the "McDonagh Cup teams". So much so that it's probably not fair to even regard them as one any more.
Basically, the records show that when one of Laois/Westmeath/Antrim/Carlow/Kildare go out to play one of Kilkenny/Galway/Dublin/Wexford, anything better than a 10-point defeat is an outlier." I wouldn't agree on this as if you compare it to the previous 20 years there was next to no cases of teams outside the top 5 upsetting or drawing with teams inside. westmeath consistenly getting results against wexford, carlow drawing with Kilkenny (and with Galway in the league), Antrim beating wexford, (Off the top of my head were Dublin the victim of a shock or am I thinking of the Laois Preliminary QF?) These results are monumental progress. And I genuinely think the current system was helping close the gap, but these things take generations and patience is lacking in the GAA because you have people on TV and in the papers who know that complaining about systems is a guaranteed way to generate clicks
Overdahill (Galway) - Posts: 155 - 09/10/2026 15:06:42
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