National Forum

Hurling Championship 2026

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Replying To tirawleybaron:  "Hurling championship is a dead duck - only semi interesting question is if Cork will actually do it or implode again.
Clare and Galway are there to make up the numbers at this stage."
Quickest way to spot a Mayo person is to ask their thoughts on Galway

ColmFlaherty (Galway) - Posts: 112 - 23/06/2026 16:48:41    2681551

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Replying To Viking66:  "Think it will be a few years til Clare get back to being as good as they were in 2024. They arent replacing the giants, Cleary, Mac, Ryan, Duggan who are all getting more injuries, and wont be as effective without them. SOD unlikely to go again either.
This is their farewell tour I think."
You could be right but they do have a lot of talent coming through

Tadhg2020 (Limerick) - Posts: 600 - 23/06/2026 17:56:56    2681566

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Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "What's the inside track Tadhg on why Limerick didn't turn up last year for the qfinal with Dublin??"
Im not going down that rabbit hole. We were beaten fair and square on the day in what appears to have been a career peaking performance by Dublin.

Tadhg2020 (Limerick) - Posts: 600 - 23/06/2026 17:59:48    2681567

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Replying To tirawleybaron:  "I hate comparing Football and Hurling.
One is the top sport in the country - the other is of interest to 50% of the country (I'm being generous here).
Taking pot shots at football wont save the hurling championship nor make the sports more appealing to half the country.

League of Ireland has now overtaken Hurling in attendances and rugby is closing fast.

Hurling badly needs another period like the 1990's.

Football was in decline 2 years ago and they fixed it. 90% of games are not close, competitive and good to watch.

If you switched channels between the football, world cup and hurling at the weekend - you would go back to the football pretty quick."
Its as if you think we dont read what you post on other threads!
Football people dont care about hurling. They have a saying here in Roscommon " that they would start a bonfire and burn every Hurl in the parish". Ive been on holiday in football country and they wouldnt have the hurling on the TV in bars and restaurants. Come to think of it you had to ask them to put it on in Dublin when I lived there in the naughties. We are used to it and are probably stronger for it.
League of Ireland has taken over from Hurling. By what measurement? Please do tell. The Munster Championship averaged over 27k again this season so it cant be that. Division 1 of the NHL was well up on LOI attendance figures too.
TV viewing numbers? Id doubt it. The hurling championship hold up well against football, soccer and rugby so it cant be that either so what metric are you using?
Unlike football two years ago, the game of hurling doesnt need root and branch re writing or the rules. Football was in dire straits as a spectacle. The coaches had effectively killed the game. Hurling is nowhere near there. The problem we are facing is similar to the one football had when Dublin did their 6 in a row or whatever it was. The top teams are all in the one province atm and that creates the illusion that something needs to be fixed. You pick any sporting competition out there and this happens. Man City in PL, RM and Barca, Bayern, PSG, Leinster etc etc. Its how team sports work unfortunately. Its the same in Gaa. Kerry and Dublin in football, Tipp, KK and Cork in hurling. The club game the same. Ballina and Castlebar in GF, Tooreen in hurling.
Tipp and KK will come back. Cork are already there One of Galway,, Clare, waterford and limerick will rise up when its their time to challenge and they will win what they are good enough to win during that time. Limerick are up there now but its not our first coming in my lifetime. We came in the 80s and won 2 munstrs and 2 leagues. We did the same in the 90s. We won 3 u21s in the naughties but didnt push on. Thecpoint is that not everything is a crisis. In Sports teams rise and fall all the time and the game continues and evolves.

Tadhg2020 (Limerick) - Posts: 600 - 23/06/2026 18:21:02    2681576

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The one sided games in hurling seem to only matter based on who lost. Cork have lost by 16, 16 and 18 points across 5 seasons in this championship decade. If that was any other team there would be talk of dropping down to the Joe McDonagh cup to compete.

When we won the all Ireland in 2018, Clare beat us by 11 points in the last Munster round robin game. We lost to Tipperary in 2009 by 24 and while we made strides between then and 2012, we still lost to Kilkenny by 9 that year.

For teams like Offaly, a few years of this type of defeat is what will help them peogress. I would like to see the 6 McDonagh cup teams in the MacCarthy cup. One sided ganes should not necessarily mean alarm bells. Cork didn't and don't shy away from heavy defeats. They lost to us by 16 in the 2025 round robin then beat us in the Munster Final.

More of that willingness to bounce back and make the effort to compete, will help hurling. Creating extra divisions just to give teams games with a narrow margin of victory hasn't helped because of the yo yo effect between Leinster and the Joe McDonagh.

Novice (Limerick) - Posts: 3 - 23/06/2026 21:13:01    2681598

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Replying To Tadhg2020:  "You could be right but they do have a lot of talent coming through"
They do for sure, Ive watched alot of their minor and u20 games the last 4 years. Stritch is potentially the next great X factor forward. But wont be a like for like replacement for SOD next year. They are lacking giants coming through though, lads 6'3" plus. And they will be losing the big lads they have one by one over the coming years.
I dont think they will be uncompetitive with most counties, but Id imagine they will be a little behind Limerick and Cork next year.
Tipp have had some excellent minors and u20s the last few years also, and a good number of them.
But as you well remember from the early noughties, when Limerick won 3 u21 AIs in a row, that doesn't guarantee any AIs at Senior.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20047 - 23/06/2026 21:45:47    2681605

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