The 2000 National Hurling League, known for sponsorship reasons as the Church & General National Hurling League, was the 69th edition of the

National Hurling League The National Hurling League is an annual Inter county, inter-county hurling competition featuring teams from Ireland and England. Founded in 1925 by the Gaelic Athletic Association, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation within the l ...

(NHL), an annual

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

competition for the

GAA county teams A county is a geographic region within Gaelic games, controlled by a county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and originally based on the 32 counties of Ireland as they were in 1884. While the administrative geography of Ireland has ...

. Galway won the league, beating Tipperary in the final.

Overview

Division 1

The National Hurling League's top division featured fourteen teams divided into two groups - 1A and 1B. Each group consisted of seven teams. Galway and Limerick topped division 1A while Tipperary and Waterford topped division 1B. Galway finished the league undefeated and were crowned champions after defeating Tipp in the final. Down at the other end of the tables, Kerry and

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

failed to win a single group game and were paired against each other in the relegation play-off. Derry won that game, thus condemning Kerry to division 2 for the following year.

Division 2

Division 2 featured one group of ten teams.

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The River Barrow flows through the town and forms the historic bounda ...

and

Meath Meath may refer to: General * County Meath, Republic of Ireland **Kingdom of Meath, medieval precursor of the county ** List of kings of Meath ** Meath GAA, including the intercounty football and hurling teams ** Diocese of Meath, in the Roman Cath ...

topped the group and contested the final. Meath won and secured promotion to division 1A for the following year. Tyrone ended the group stage without a single victory and were relegated to division 3 for the following year.

Division 3

Division 3 featured one group of nine teams.

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town *Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia **Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * County ...

finished the group stages undefeated and were joined in the final by

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

who recorded just one defeat. Louth won that game and secured promotion to division 2 for the following year.

Division 1

Tipperary came into the season as defending champions of the 1999 season.

entered Division 1 as the promoted team. On 14 May 2000, Galway won the title following a 2-18 to 2-13 win over Tipperary in the final. It was their first league title since 1995-96 and their sixth National League title overall. Kerry, who lost all of their group stage matches, were relegated from Division 1 after losing the relegation play-off to Derry by 1-21 to 2-4.

won Division 2 and secured promotion to the top tier. Galway's Fergal Healy was the Division 1 top scorer with 8-27.

Structure

The 14 teams in Division 1 were divided into two groups of seven teams named Division 1A and Division 1B. Each team played all the others in its group once. Two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. The first two teams in 1A and 1B advanced to the league semi-finals with the top team in Division 1A playing the second team in Division 1B and the second team in Division 1A playing the first in Division 1B. The bottom-placed teams in 1A and 1B faced each other in a play-off to determine which team would be relegated.

Division 1A Table

Group stage

Division 1B Table

Group stage

Relegation play-off

Division 1 Semi-finals

Division 1 Final

Scoring statistics

;Top scorers overall ;Top scorers in a single game

Miscellaneous

* Waterford's round 2 defeat of Wexford is their first home league defeat of their southeast neighbours since 1963.

Division 2

Down Down most often refers to: * Down, the relative direction opposed to up * Down (gridiron football), in American/Canadian football, a period when one play takes place * Down feather, a soft bird feather used in bedding and clothing * Downland, a ty ...

and

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , "Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Pri ...

entered Division 2 as the respective relegated and promoted teams from the other divisions. On 28 May 2000,

won the title following a 5-14 to 2-10 win over

in the final. Tyrone, who lost all of their group stage matches, were relegated from Division 2.

Division 2 table

Group stage

Knock-out stage

Division 3

On 28 May 2000,

won the title following a 0-16 to 1-11 win over

in the final.

Division 3 table

Knock-out stage

References

{{National Hurling Leagues

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

National Hurling League seasons