The Munster Senior Hurling League (known in some years as the Munster Hurling Cup) is an annual
hurling competition organised by the
Munster Council of the
Gaelic Athletic Association
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include t ...
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.
are the
current champions.
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
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
and
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...
, all six counties competed, and they were drawn into two separate groups, with the two group winners meeting in the final.
In
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...
the competition was a
straight knockout, with 5 teams, and was called the "Munster Hurling Cup". For
2023
Events
Predicted and scheduled events
* January 1
** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law.
** Croatia will adopt the eu ...
the competition returned to the format of 2020, with two groups of three teams.
Stadia
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 Gaelic Grounds, know for sponsorshop reasons as the TUS Gaelic Grounds, is the principal GAA stadium in the Irish city of Limerick, home to the Limerick hurling and football teams. It has a capacity of 44,023.
History
9 October 1926 saw ...
, the home ground of
Limerick
Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...
has a capacity of 50,500 with
O'Garney Park
O'Garney Park () is a GAA stadium in Sixmilebridge, County Clare, Ireland. It is the home of Sixmilebridge GAA club and is one of the main grounds of Clare GAA's Gaelic football and hurling teams.
It can hold about 7,000 spectators, including a ...
, 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
Wins by county
List of finals
Top scorers
All time
Overall
Single game
Finals
References
{{Waterford county hurling team
Hurling cup competitions in Munster
Munster GAA inter-county hurling competitions