All-Ireland hurling preliminary quarter-finals set to be disbanded

The All-Ireland senior hurling preliminary quarter-finals are all but certain to be disbanded from next year.

There is growing support to cut the current year link between the Joe McDonagh and Liam MacCarthy Cup competitions and a motion will be tabled at Special Congress in Croke Park on October 4.

Central Council delegates are to be briefed on the proposed list of motions at a meeting this Friday before they are put forward to be recommended at next month’s Ard Chomhairle meeting.

The majority of them are the conditional Football Review Committee (FRC) rules becoming permanent but cutting the hurling preliminary quarter-finals, those games between the third-placed teams in Leinster and Munster and the Joe McDonagh Cup finalists, will be among them.

It will be the second time in just over two years that the GAA will try to undo that element of the hurling championship. At Special Congress in September 2023, the then Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) recommended the “last eight” games to be done away with but did not receive the required 60% support.

Then CCCC chairman Derek Kent reiterated that call to scrap them as Leinster chair in April and insisted the landslide margins between the MacCarthy and McDonagh Cups sides provided “no promotion for hurling”. In the six years of the preliminary quarter-finals, McDonagh Cup sides have lost 11 out of 12 times with an average losing margin of 17.9 points.

In his All-Ireland SHC final match programme notes, GAA president Jarlath Burns spoke of how the Joe McDonagh Cup could be better promoted running concurrent to the MacCarthy Cup.

“While the current system offers a pathway, it may also place an unfair burden on teams whose seasons have already been long and challenging,” Burns wrote.

“If we were to remove the preliminary quarter-final, we would open the door for a longer and more meaningful Joe McDonagh Cup competition – a competition that deserves to stand proudly on its own, with adequate time, coverage, and respect. These are discussions that must be held with fairness, vision, and the future in mind.”

In the event of the motion being passed, the CCCC could be empowered to organise the McDonagh Cup final in early July possibly before one of the All-Ireland semi-finals similar to the Tailteann Cup decider being played as the curtain-raiser to the Saturday All-Ireland SFC semi-final.

Meanwhile, outgoing senior inter-county football referee Joe McQuillan has described some of the FRC rule changes as “transformative”.

The four-time All-Ireland SFC final official, whose final game was the Kerry-Tyrone All-Ireland semi-final last month, admitted he was surprised by how much the likes of the 50-metre free advancement for dissent and solo-and-go alterations improved the game.

“I was a wee bit apprehensive about the new rules coming in for my last year,” McQuillan told the official GAA website. “I was thinking, 'why could they not wait one more year before they brought them in?’ I just didn't know how I would adapt to them. It was that unknown.

“But, in fairness to most referees in the country, club and county, they've adapted so well to the rules. In fairness, Jim Gavin and his team brought in a good package. To be honest, I never imagined it would work so well. But they have been hugely transformative. I know the two semi-finals and finals weren't the greatest, but we've had a wonderful championship.

“The games have been high-scoring which people like, and I have to say they have been easier to referee as well. It's cut out dissent and the solo and go has also been transformative. It just moves the game on so fast. Most players take the solo and go and they're gone, so they're out of a flashpoint area immediately.”

The Cavan man, who steps away having turned 50, continued: “Since the introduction of cards in 1999 it's the first All-Ireland football final to have no card issued, as far as I know. If you look back at the card count all year it's down massively on last year's championship and the year before and the year before that.

“I think it was said at one of our recent referees meeting that there was only two straight red cards issued in the whole year (championship). It certainly has cleaned up the game and the discipline end of things has really tidied up which we're seeing at club level as well.”

Click here to read article