01/06/2026
How a Hurling Championship similar in layout to football could work with a few extras to still enhance the importance of League and Provincial success for each county
Do you play Leinster and Munster similar to the football straight knock out and then introduce the All Ireland series as 2 groups of 6 teams in an open draw
The 5 Munster sides with the 6 in Leinster and reward the joe McDonagh champions with entry as the 12th team ?
11 teams drawn into 2 pots with Joe McDonagh Champions of that year
Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Clare, Waterford, Galway, Kilkenny, Wexford Offaly, Dublin and Kildare off this year’s championship with whoever wins the Joe McDonagh Cup this year.
2 groups of 6 teams in each will all play 5 games each in May and June in the All Ireland round robin series with home and away venues.
The Munster and Leinster champions are rewarded to start in each group seeded with 2 points each on the board as provincial champions already that year.
They also are sorted into group A and B seperately and the runners up in the other group.
The 8 remaining teams are sorted with a draw into each group or on semi final positioning form that years provincial campaign
You could have 2 groups of 6 with for example
All Ireland Championship round robin Groups working off 2026 structures for example
Group A
Champions Cork / Limerick
Runner up Galway / Dublin
Kilkenny
Waterford
Kildare
Laois - Joe McDonagh champions for an example not yet played
Group B
Champions Galway / Dublin
Runner Up Cork / Limerick
Clare
Tipperary
Wexford
Offaly
Reward your provincial champions with starting as the first team drawn into each group and to start each group with 2 points as provincial champions. Reward for winning each provincial championship
Reward for Joe McDonagh Champions entry to group stages
Bottom 2 sides of each group play off for relegation to Joe McDonagh championship the following campaign.
If the same county is good enough to win the Joe McDonagh cup the following campaign they will again gain entry into the All Ireland Groups round robin series
The team relegated will not gain entry into the following year’s Provincial campaign. But in the Joe McDonagh cup campaign the following year still have every chance to win it to gain back entry to the All Ireland Senior groups stages
A team of say Kildare who got rewarded as champions of the 2025 Joe McDonagh cup played 5 Competitive games across Leinster this year. The negative is they will be demoted in 2027 again. But a positive is if they were to win the Joe McDonagh Cup again in 2027, they would again compete with the top tear sides of 2027. It is a demotion with a positive alternative for any sides that are trying to make the break through. The exposure each year can eventually alter to not finishing in the relegation position in the top tier senior All Ireland group stages to automatically compete in the Leinster or Munster campaigns of 2027 and reinstate yourself as a side of progress and labelled automatically with the top 11 sides in the country.
The All Ireland series Group winners and runners up will compete in the All Ireland knockout stages as semi finalist and quarter finalists with the 3rd place teams entering the knockout stages against the Provincial runners up in the quarter final stages
The semi final pairing will consist of teams from opposite sides of the groups where possible.
To keep the league campaign of value maybe reward the league champions with a 1 point start come the All Ireland series campaign
If that is the same team as who wins the provincial campaigns then they could have 3 points on the board before a ball is struck in the all Ireland series
Reward for your teams wins in league and provincial campaigns now matter even more
A continuation of your counties success is fully rewarded come the All Ireland series
Waterford for example if they win the League and Munster Championship of that year will enter the group stage seeded and with a possible 3 point head start in the All Ireland series to qualify from there group
