NEXT YEAR’S MUNSTER senior hurling championship will be revamped to allow a break weekend for all counties at the midway point, Munster GAA have confirmed.
After calls to change the scheduling, it was decided that the 2019 provincial championship will begin a week earlier on 12 May, and will run over six weeks.
The final round of games will take place on the week ending 16 June.
A meeting of the Munster GAA Competitions Control Committee (CCC) was held in Limerick last night and ratified the change, along with a radical revamp to the Munster minor football championship.
The old competition had been highly criticised. Next year, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford will all play one another in a round-robin. The top two will meet in a play-off and the winners there will join Cork and Kerry in another round-robin.
The top two there contest the 2019 Munster final.
A Munster GAA statement on both changes, in full, reads:
“2019 Munster Senior Hurling Championship – The first round of games will begin on week ending May 12th (one week earlier than 2018) and the Munster Championship will be run over 6 weeks, allowing a break weekend for all counties midway through the round-robin series. The final round of games will take place on week ending June 16th.
“2019 Munster Minor Football Championship – A new format for the Munster Minor Football Championship has been confirmed on a one-year trial basis.
“Phase 1 will see a round-robin format involving Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford with each county getting 3 games. The top two teams will then play the Phase 1 Final. The winner of the Phase 1 Final will join Cork and Kerry in a Phase 2 round-robin format, with the top 2 teams qualifying for the Munster Final.
“The purpose of the new format is to ensure that the developing counties of Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford get at least three games against teams of a similar standard. The Phase 1 Final winner will have played four games before progressing to meet Cork and Kerry.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
