Intercounty hurling season needs 'total transformation and a complete mindset change' says Leinster chief

Irish Examiner

08-06-2025

Leinster chairman Derek Kent says the inter-county hurling season is too short and requires an overhaul.
Following on from his Leinster senior football final match programme notes in which he called for a review of the playing calendar, the Wexford man comments that there is an imbalance between the scheduling of hurling and football fixtures.
In his programme notes today, Kent writes: 'Almost 60% of our senior hurling teams in Leinster will have no hurling in June, which surely demonstrates a troubling lack of hurling promotion.
'On the contrary, over 91% of our football teams, all but one of the 12 in the province, will play football this month. That clearly highlights an imbalance in the playing of our games.
'The structures and scheduling that we currently have in place for hurling, which we should remind ourselves is a UNESCO-recognised intrinsic part of Irish culture, require a
'The number of games in a short timeframe including the U20s and U17s has affected the fostering of hurling and our games have been poorly attended to-date.
'The widest issue is the length of our playing season, A decade ago, we played 20% less game in a time of 20% more time. As things stand, the timing of our fixtures is not doing hurling many favours.'
Kent's remarks come a day after the Munster SHC final was decided after extra-time and penalties as there is currently no facility for provincial final replays in the GAA Official Guide.
A motion to allow for replays in the six provincial deciders between football and hurling was deferred at Congress in February but could be debated at Special Congress on October 4.
On the topic of making 20,000 tickets free to U14s for today's double-header, Kent notes: 'The promotion of our games among our children is something we in the Leinster GAA must not lose sight of.'