Munster Senior Hurling League

The Munster Senior Hurling League is an annual hurling competition organised by the Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association since 2016 for the top inter-county teams in the province of Munster in Ireland.

The series of games are played during January. The Munster Senior Hurling League is effectively a pre-season tournament. It allows teams to blood new players and to experiment prior to the opening of the National Hurling League.

2019 was the first year that all six eligible teams participated in the Munster Senior Hurling League. Participation or non-participation can be decided on an annual basis. Limerick are the current champions.

History This competition is a successor completion to the Waterford Crystal Cup which lasted from 2006 to 2015.

Format

In the tournament's first three years, each team played all the others once in a single round-robin system (of 4 or 5 county teams), with the top two teams progressing to the final. In 2019 and 2020, all six counties competed, and they were drawn into two separate groups, with the two group winners meeting in the final.

In 2022 the competition was a straight knockout, with 5 teams, and was called the "Munster Hurling Cup". From 2023 onward the competition returned to the format of 2020, with two groups of three teams.

Stadia and locations

Location Stadium Capacity Limerick Gaelic Grounds 44,023 Killarney Fitzgerald Stadium 38,000 Ennis Cusack Park 19,000 Dungarvan Fraher Field 15,000 Tralee Austin Stack Park 12,000 Waterford Walsh Park 11,046 Mallow Mallow GAA Complex 8,000 Sixmilebridge O'Garney Park 7,000 Kilmallock FitzGerald Park 4,000 Nenagh MacDonagh Park Clarecastle Clarecastle GAA Rathkeale Mick Neville Park As of the 2022 season, Munster League hurling has been played in eleven stadiums since the formation of the league in 2016.

While the traditional county grounds are sometimes used for league matches, smaller club grounds have usually been used for games which may not have had such a high profile.

Munster League matches are usually played on a rolling home and away basis.

The stadiums for the 2017 league showed a large disparity in capacity: Gaelic Grounds, the home ground of Limerick has a capacity of 50,500 with O'Garney Park, one of the grounds used by Clare, having a capacity of 7,000. The combined total capacity of the Munster League in the 2017 season was 111,000.

Stadium attendances are a significant source of regular income for the Munster Council and the individual county boards.

Roll of honour CountyTitlesYears winners 4 2018, 2020, 2022, 2026 2 2016, 2019 22017, 2023 0 0 0

List of finals

YearWinnersRunners-upVenueWinning Captain(s)AttendanceCountyScoreCountyScore2026Limerick0-23Waterford0-15MallowWilliam O'Donoghue1,900 2025 Competition not held due to fixture congestion2024Competition unfinished with , and left in tournament.2023Cork3-14Tipperary1-19Páirc Uí RinnSeán O’Donoghue 4,7272022Limerick 0-27Clare 0-18Cusack Park, Ennis Barry Nash 7,9922021No competition due to COVID-192020Limerick1-32Cork0-20Gaelic GroundsCian Lynch 5,2952019Clare4-19Tipperary1-18Gaelic GroundsTony Kelly 4,5312018Limerick0-16Clare0-10Gaelic GroundsPaul BrowneDeclan Hannon 3,2092017Cork1-21Limerick1-20Gaelic GroundsStephen McDonnell 2,3722016Clare0-18Limerick0-17Gaelic GroundsCian DillonTony Kelly 4,583

Player records

Winning teams YearWinning countyWinning team2023CorkP Collins; S O’Donoghue, R Downey, S O’Leary Hayes; C Cormack, N O’Leary, D Cahalane; T O’Connell, B Roche; S Twomey, R O’Flynn, L Meade; C Walsh, D Dalton), P Horgan2022LimerickDavid McCarthy; Barry Nash, Dan Morrissey, Richie English; Colin Coughlan, Ronan Connolly, Paddy O’Loughlin; William O’Donoghue, Brian O’Grady; David Reidy, Cathal O’Neill, Gearoid Hegarty; Darren O’Connell, Pat Ryan, Oisin O’Reilly. Subs: Adam English, Rory Duff, Conor Boylan2020LimerickBarry Hennessey; Tom Condon, Richie English, Aaron Costello; Diarmuid Byrnes, Dan Morrissey, Barry Nash; Robbie Hanley, Cian Lynch (capt); Darragh O’Donovan, Tom Morrissey, David Dempsey; Graeme Mulcahy, David Reidy, Aaron Gillane Subs: Sean Finn, Gearoid Hegarty, Mark Quinlan, Brian O’Grady, Jerome Boylan2019ClareD Tuohy; J McCarthy, D McInerney, R Hayes; A McCarthy, C Cleary, C Malone; S Golden, R Taylor; D Ryan, T Kelly N Deasy; C Guilfoyle, C McInerney, M O’Neill. Subs: P Collins, D Conroy, M O’Malley, G Cooney, J Browne.2018LimerickN Quaid; T Condon, S Hickey, R English; D Byrnes, D Morrissey, W O’Meara; P Browne, C Lynch; T Morrissey, D O’Donovan, B O’Connell; A Gillane, S Flanagan, G Hegarty. Subs: B Murphy, D Reidy, A La Touche Cosgrave2017CorkA Nash, S McDonnell, C Spillane, D Cahalane, M Ellis, C Joyce, M Coleman, L McLoughlin, D Kearney, C Lehane, L Meade, S Kingston, A Cadogan, P Horgan, D Fitzgibbon. Subs: D Griffin, K Burke, D Brosnan, S Harnedy, C O’Sullivan.2016ClareA Fahy; J Browne, P O’Connor, P Flanagan; C Dillon, D McInerney, C Cleary; G O’Connell, D Reidy; P Duggan, C Ryan, D Fitzgerald; J Conlon, D Honan, B Duggan. Subs: T Kelly, B Bolger, S Golden, C O’Connell.

Top Scorers

All time

+ As of the 2019 leaguePos.NameTeamGoalsPointsTotal 1 Kerry 0 55 55 2 Limerick 4 28 40 3 Waterford 3 30 394 Cork 2 28 34 Limerick 2 28 34 5 Cork 0 33 33 6 Limerick 5 15 307 Clare 2 23 29 Clare 1 26 298 Limerick 1 23 26 Kerry 1 23 26

Overall

+ yearNameTeamGoalsPointsTotal 2016 Limerick 1 21 24 2017 Cork 2 27 33 2018 Limerick 1 21 24 2019 Waterford 2 25 31

Single game

+ yearNameTeamGoalsPointsTotal 2016 Limerick 1 9 12 2017 Waterford 0 14 14 2018 Kerry 1 10 13 2019 Waterford 2 12 18

Finals

+ yearNameTeamGoalsPointsTotal 2016 Limerick 0 7 72017 Limerick 0 9 9 Cork 0 9 9 2018 Limerick 0 8 82019 Clare 2 3 9 Tipperary 0 9 9

Munster Senior Hurling League

Bron en licentie