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McDonagh Cup Link To All-Ireland To Be Removed?

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I enjoyed the occasion of Wexford visiting Tralee for a preliminary quarter final, despite the result. The travelling Wexicans brought great colour. Division 1B is now the fair place for these encounters.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9482 - 26/02/2026 23:16:32    2658826

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "Knew it'd only be a matter of time before that Laois victory over Dublin back in 2019 was brought up!!!

But as I pointed out all the way back on page 9 of this thread (in April of last year), if you leave that one sole solitary shock result aside:
- average winning margin of McCarthy Cup side over Joe McDonagh winners = 13.5 points
- average winning margin of McCarthy Cup side over Joe McDonagh runners-up = 20 points

Then last year, McDonagh Cup winners were beaten by 21 points. McDonagh Cup runners-up were beaten by 23 points.

It really is time this mismatches were brought to an end. And I for one am glad to see it's one of the McDonagh Cup counties themselves bringing the motion to do that."
I for one hope it's not done away with. I'm surprised Wexford posters are so worried about it as ye are not a Mcdonagh team & ye havent finished in the top 3 recently so don't have to worry about playing a preliminary q/t final. Playing these games is a big reward after winning Mcdonagh & with nothing to lose really. As I previously stated just give teams the 2 weeks to prepare. If it's only the 6 days they might as well get rid of it

carlo (Carlow) - Posts: 312 - 27/02/2026 00:03:01    2658830

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Replying To carlo:  "I for one hope it's not done away with. I'm surprised Wexford posters are so worried about it as ye are not a Mcdonagh team & ye havent finished in the top 3 recently so don't have to worry about playing a preliminary q/t final. Playing these games is a big reward after winning Mcdonagh & with nothing to lose really. As I previously stated just give teams the 2 weeks to prepare. If it's only the 6 days they might as well get rid of it"
We have finished in the top 3 more often than Dublin, and the same amount of times as Galway. We only missed out on top 3 last year on head to head with Dublin.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 27/02/2026 10:26:37    2658849

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The motion makes sense. It is time for change.

As far as I'm aware, the provincial runners up will have home advantage against the 3rd placed team from the other province in the All Ireland quarter finals. Makes sense.

Similarly, the McDonagh group runners up will have home advantage against the 3rd placed team in the McDonagh semi final.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9482 - 27/02/2026 11:21:35    2658860

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Replying To legendzxix:  "The motion makes sense. It is time for change.

As far as I'm aware, the provincial runners up will have home advantage against the 3rd placed team from the other province in the All Ireland quarter finals. Makes sense.

Similarly, the McDonagh group runners up will have home advantage against the 3rd placed team in the McDonagh semi final."
I broadly agree with you that the motion makes sense with one caveat.
The reason for the preliminary quarter final is to leave the door open to more teams competing for and, potentially, winning Liam. Thats the theory anyway. What it did achieve was allow teams and players to compete in All ireland Series/mccarthy Cup that would never have done under this proposal. Thats prohibitive to the expansion of the game theoretically. There are a whole generation of hurlers out there who have McCarthy cup appearances on their cv without ever winning the Joe or Christy cups. That means a lot to them and the young hurlers coming behind them. That will be lost.
On a practical level the preliminary quarter finals are a wasted weekend but in an ideological one they serve a purpose. Are we ready to close the door on that idea?

Tadhg2020 (Limerick) - Posts: 40 - 27/02/2026 12:00:17    2658867

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Replying To carlo:  "I for one hope it's not done away with. I'm surprised Wexford posters are so worried about it as ye are not a Mcdonagh team & ye havent finished in the top 3 recently so don't have to worry about playing a preliminary q/t final. Playing these games is a big reward after winning Mcdonagh & with nothing to lose really. As I previously stated just give teams the 2 weeks to prepare. If it's only the 6 days they might as well get rid of it"
As regards your quip about Wexford posters being "worried", or why should we even have an opinion on it -

Some of us can look outside our own little bubble and consider what's best overall, rather than fixating just on ourselves.

And by the way, the big reward for winning McDonagh is getting to play in the top tier championship the following year. As I've also pointed out previously on this thread, I don't think there are any other examples in sport where winners of a lower tier competition go straight into a higher tier one in the same year.

- Tailteann Cup winners don't go straight into that year's Sam Maguire Cup.
- In soccer, Europa League winners don't go straight into end stages of that year's Champions League.
- In rugby, Challenge Cup winners don't go straight into end stages of the Champions Cup.
- And back to GAA, Carlow (or Wexford, or any other county) Intermediate champions don't go straight into end stages of that year's Senior championship.

If you can think of an example to show somewhere this kind of thing happens after all, I'd genuinely love to hear it.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3363 - 27/02/2026 14:20:22    2658896

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