Munster Senior Hurling League

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Munster Senior Hurling League
Current season or competition:
2024 Munster Senior Hurling League
IrishSraith Shinsir Iomána na Mumhan
CodeHurling
Founded2016 (2016)
RegionMunster (GAA)
TrophyMunster Senior League Trophy
No. of teams6 (2024)
Title holders Cork (2023) (2nd title)
Most titles Limerick (3 titles)
SponsorsCo-Op Superstores
Official websiteOfficial website

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. Cork 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". For 2023 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

Wins by county

County Titles Years winners
Limerick 3 2018, 2020, 2022
Clare 2 2016, 2019
Cork 2 2017, 2023
Tipperary 0 —
Waterford 0 —
Kerry 0 —

List of finals

Year Winners Runners-up Venue Winning Captain(s) Attendance
County Score County Score
2024 Competition unfinished with Cork, Limerick and Waterford left in tournament.
2023 Cork 3-14 Tipperary 1-19 Páirc Uí Rinn Seán O’Donoghue 4,727
2022 Limerick 0-27 Clare 0-18 Cusack Park, Ennis Barry Nash 7,992
2021 No competition
2020 Limerick 1-32 Cork 0-20 Gaelic Grounds Cian Lynch 5,295
2019 Clare 4-19 Tipperary 1-18 Gaelic Grounds Tony Kelly 4,531
2018 Limerick 0-16 Clare 0-10 Gaelic Grounds Paul Browne
Declan Hannon 		3,209
2017 Cork 1-21 Limerick 1-20 Gaelic Grounds Stephen McDonnell 2,372
2016 Clare 0-18 Limerick 0-17 Gaelic Grounds Cian Dillon
Tony Kelly 		4,583

Player records

Winning teams

Year Winning county Winning Team
2023 Cork P 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 Horgan
2022 Limerick David 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 Boylan

2020 Limerick Barry 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 Boylan

2019 Clare D 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.

2018 Limerick N 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 Cosgrave

2017 Cork A 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.

2016 Clare A 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 league
Pos. Name Team Goals Points Total
1 Shane Nolan Kerry 0 55 55
2 David Reidy Limerick 4 28 40
3 Stephen Bennett Waterford 3 30 39
4 Patrick Horgan Cork 2 28 34
Aaron Gillane Limerick 2 28 34
5 Declan Dalton Cork 0 33 33
6 Barry Nash Limerick 5 15 30
7 David Reidy Clare 2 23 29
Niall Deasy Clare 1 26 29
8 Declan Hannon Limerick 1 23 26
Pádraig Boyle Kerry 1 23 26

Overall

year Name Team Goals Points Total
2016 Declan Hannon Limerick 1 21 24
2017 Patrick Horgan Cork 2 27 33
2018 Aaron Gillane Limerick 1 21 24
2019 Stephen Bennett Waterford 2 25 31

Single game

year Name Team Goals Points Total
2016 Declan Hannon Limerick 1 9 12
2017 Pauric Mahony Waterford 0 14 14
2018 Pádraig Boyle Kerry 1 10 13
2019 Stephen Bennett Waterford 2 12 18

Finals

year Name Team Goals Points Total
2016 Declan Hannon Limerick 0 7 7
2017 Peter Casey Limerick 0 9 9
Patrick Horgan Cork 0 9 9
2018 Aaron Gillane Limerick 0 8 8
2019 Tony Kelly Clare 2 3 9
Séamus Callanan Tipperary 0 9 9

See also

References

  1. ^ "Colleges excluded from Munster pre-season competitions". Hogan Stand. 4 December 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  2. ^ "Munster Hurling League is scrapped as time runs out in schedule for pre-season competition". Independent.ie. 22 January 2024.
  3. ^ "Late goals from Hayes and O'Connor fire Cork to Munster Hurling League title". the42. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  4. ^ "Limerick land more hurling silverware with Munster pre-season win over Clare". the42. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  5. ^ "Clinical Limerick thump Cork to claim Munster Hurling League title".
  6. ^ "Tony Kelly in top form as Clare topple Tipp to claim title". Irish Times. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  7. ^ Breheny, Martin (13 January 2019). "Tony Kelly notches 2-3 as Clare land the first silverware of the 2019 hurling season". Irish Independent. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  8. ^ "Limerick lift Munster Hurling League with final win over Clare".
  9. ^ "First trophy of season goes to Cork". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Clare take Munster SHL title after tight tussle with Limerick". Irish Times. 23 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
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