Hey all. Sorry, this started off as a much shorter question but then it grew arms and legs. I'm very curious to know how various clubs end up in their province's intermediate or junior club championship and not, say, a higher one.

Take my own Leitrim for example. The Leitrim senior hurling champions take part in the Connacht Junior Club Hurling Championship. It's the same with Sligo. Up until last year, those counties' champions would play each other in the lone semifinal, and the winners would play the Galway junior champions in the final. But this year there's Mayo participation from a team from Mayo's Junior A championship (Mayo's senior champions go into the Connacht intermediate club championship), and they're playing the Galway team in the semi. Who decided where they go? Is it made at county, provincial or central level?

Ulster hurling is another one. Up until 2019-20, the senior champions of Antrim, Down, Derry and Armagh took part in the Ulster Senior Club Hurling Championship. Following a break for COVID, the competition resumed but without a team from Armagh, their champions Na Fianna from Middletown dropping down to the Ulster intermediate club championship. But then this year, the Donegal senior champions have moved up from the intermediate to the Ulster senior club championship. How was that decided?

It gets stranger. Setanta won the Donegal senior hurling championship and went into the Ulster Senior Club Hurling Championship. But the senior runners-up St Eunan's went into the Ulster Intermediate Club Hurling Championship! Burt did one better and lost in the Donegal senior semifinals, but they wound up in the Ulster Junior Club Hurling Championship and they've only gone and won the thing! Fair play to them, no complaints here, but I'm wondering did Donegal GAA decide to nominate the clubs that way for those competitions? Is it up to any county what clubs to put in which provincial club competition? Or do the provincial councils decide? Is it set out anywhere online? Or what's going on at all?

Tacaí Liatroma (Leitrim) - Posts: 1233 - 17/11/2025 00:30:47    2644911

Bit like your question, this started off as a short answer, but then started to grow arms and legs as well.

Short answer is it's decided at provincial council level. Each county would have opportunity to make a case for the appropriate way of deciding who goes into what championship, and if it's accepted, then away they go.

It grows arms and legs when I try to give explanations and examples. I won't claim to know the exact workings of the Connacht & Ulster councils, but I'd imagine it was something like this -

Connacht first. Leitrim would have made the case years ago that the Connacht Junior Hurling championship was the appropriate level for their senior hurling champions. The Connacht Senior Championship with the Galway senior champions would be far too strong for them, and even Connacht Intermediate Championship would be a level too high. Sligo would have made the same case and had it accepted too.

Mayo, I'm guessing, just for a number of years decided not to enter Connacht Junior at all, but then decided to enter it this year after all, and put up a case that since the winners of their first grade go to the Connacht second grade, then the winners of the Mayo second grade should go to the Connacht third grade.

In Ulster, and specifically re. Donegal - looks like there are just six clubs in their senior championship, and eight more in what they call Intermediate/Junior. So if they could only send winners of their second grade to the Ulster Intermediate Championship, then what Ulster would really be getting would be "seventh best" team in Donegal. I'm guessing Donegal put up a case that their seventh best team would be far too weak to go up against winners of the second grade in stronger counties like Antrim & Down, and that the Donegal senior runners-up would be of a more appropriate standard.

Similar with Ulster Junior. "We don't even have a third grade ourselves, and even if we did, by the time you dove down that far, the standard would be fairly weak. We think our most appropriate team for that level would be one of our losing senior semi-finalists".

I see Burt had a narrow win over Lavey in that Ulster Junior Final, after extra time. Don't know how much they won the earlier rounds by. If it turns out they were judged far too strong for most other teams at that level, Ulster Council might take a different view next year on how Donegal decides who to send to that Championship.

Hope all this makes sense!

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3235 - 17/11/2025 11:16:25    2644978