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Irish Examiner
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
'I wouldn't I agree with it. You've to earn your right': Lee opposes Munster SFC seeding
Limerick football manager Jimmy Lee has expressed opposition to the proposal to seed the Munster SFC based on league status, insisting that counties must earn the right to a provincial semi-final spot and shouldn't have it handed to them. The proposed change is that the two highest-ranked counties from the league receive byes to the Munster semi-final and, additionally, be kept apart in that semi-final draw. If the league-based seeding is voted in later this month, Cork and Kerry would be the seeded pair for 2026 on account of Cork's fifth-place finish in Division 2 earlier this year bettering Clare's third-place finish in Division 3. The current structure, which has been in place since 2015, seeds the previous year's Munster finalists. Clare and Kerry, as a result of reaching the 2024 Munster decider, were given semi-final byes for the 2025 draw, albeit they could still have been paired against one another in that last-four stage. 'I wouldn't agree with it,' said Jimmy Lee when asked for his views on the recommended change that will go before the full Munster Council later this month. 'Why wouldn't I agree with it? You've to earn your right. If it was the same across all four provinces, I'd probably be fine with it. But if you were to look at it coldly, who would be seeded next year? It would be Cork and Kerry. Our neighbours Clare, Munster finalists this year and for the two years before that, they have done nothing wrong. So for me, it is a no. 'I'd be happy out with that [current system]. Clare, and I am just using them as an example, they have worked so hard to get there and maintain it, they have been consistent for years. 'They've earned the right to be there and that's the only issue I'd have with it. You've got to earn these rights. You can't hand them out.' Although Munster GAA have yet to clarify the motivation behind the proposal, it is understood to be linked to a sharp fall in Munster final attendances across the three most recent Kerry-Clare deciders, as well as the one-sided nature of two of those games. Clare chairman Kieran Keating recently told the Irish Examiner that putting Cork and Kerry up on a 'pedestal' will do nothing to improve the standard of football in Munster. 'Improving the standard in Cork is not going to fix Munster football, it is by helping other counties, giving a leg up to other counties, rather than putting Cork and Kerry on the pedestal up above them and saying to the others, you fight for the scraps.' With Clare and Limerick set to vote against the proposal, they would require similar opposition from Tipperary and Waterford to ensure the status quo is retained in 2026.
Irish Examiner
19-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Seeding Munster SFC based on league status would be a 'regressive' move, says Clare chairman Keating
Clare GAA chairman Kieran Keating has criticised the proposal to seed the Munster SFC based on league status, labelling the move as 'retrograde' and 'regressive'. It emerged last week that at the May meeting of Munster Council top-brass, there was agreement that a recommendation to change how the Munster SFC is seeded would be voted on by the full provincial body in July. The current structure, which has been in place since 2015, seeds the previous year's Munster finalists. Clare and Kerry, as a result of reaching the 2024 Munster decider, were given semi-final byes for the 2025 draw, albeit they could still have been paired against one another in that last-four stage. The proposed change is that the two seeded counties would be the two highest-ranked counties from the league. It is also proposed the seeded counties be kept apart in the semi-final draw and so could not meet until the final, at the earliest. If the league-based seeding is voted in next month, Cork and Kerry would be the seeded pair for 2026 on account of Cork's fifth-place finish in Division 2 earlier this year, bettering Clare's third-place finish in Division 3. Although Munster GAA have yet to clarify the motivation behind the proposal, it is understood to be linked to a sharp fall in Munster final attendances across the three most recent Kerry-Clare deciders, as well as the one-sided nature of two of those games. Clare chief Keating has said putting Cork and Kerry up on a 'pedestal' will do nothing to improve the standard of football in Munster. As well as drawing attention to the fact that Kerry's 17 and 22-point Munster final hammerings of Cork in 2018 and '21 were greater than the 14 and 11-point margins in the Kerry-Clare deciders of 2023 and '25, he has also questioned if there is need at all for any seeding of a six-team championship when Ulster and its nine participants are thrown into an open draw each year. 'We moved away from seeding the Munster football championship over 30 years ago. In that time, ourselves and Tipperary both won a Munster title each. Obviously, we would like to have won more of them, and we hope we will again. It is a very retrograde and regressive step to go back to the way it was in the 1980s and prior to that,' Keating told the Irish Examiner. 'If Munster Council are interested in promoting football and improving the standard of football in the province, well their aim has to be to improve the standard in Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford. 'Improving the standard in Cork is not going to fix Munster football, it is by helping other counties, giving a leg up to other counties, rather than putting Cork and Kerry on the pedestal up above them and saying to the others, you fight for the scraps.' Keating is hopeful Limerick, Tipp, and Waterford will join Clare in voting against the proposal, but if the seeding criteria is changed, he stressed it should be at least three years before the proposed new system takes effect. Any earlier than that would be unfair, he added. 'If you were to introduce seeding based on league finishing positions, you would have to give ourselves, Tipperary, Limerick, and Waterford the opportunity to advance our league position before that seeding is introduced. So you certainly can't introduce seeding based on a league that is already over. 'If you wanted to introduce it based on the 2026 league, I would argue that is unfair because the only way we can get ahead of Cork is if Cork are relegated. It is not in our power, or Limerick's power for that matter, to get ahead of Cork next year, all we can do is get promoted. So you can't introduce it next year because of that. That is a fundamental problem we would see.' Another issue the Banner holds with the Munster Council proposal is the double-weighting it gives to a county's league status. 'Qualification to the Sam Maguire is based on provincial final involvement or finishing in roughly the top 12 or 13 positions in the league. Munster Council is proposing there be a double benefit to your league position; you can qualify for the All-Ireland series by finishing high up in the league and you can give yourself a better chance of getting to the Munster final, which would in turn get you into the All-Ireland series. 'There's an injustice in that, an overweighting of league position. It is making league more important than championship for how you do in championship. That's a fundamental flaw in seeding based on league position when there already is an advantage given to counties based on league position.'
Irish Examiner
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Munster set to seed Cork and Kerry in 2026 football championship
MUNSTER GAA top-brass are in favour of seeding Cork and Kerry in next year's Munster SFC, with a full provincial council vote on the matter to take place next month. Under the current structure, which seeds the previous year's finalists, Clare and five-in-a-row Munster champions Kerry are to receive semi-final draws for the third year in succession in 2026. Kerry and Clare can still be paired against one another in the last-four stage, but this has not happened on the two occasions they were the seeded duo. This current structure has been in place since 2015, but in the wake of Kerry overcoming the Banner by 14, seven, and 11 points respectively in the last three provincial deciders, Munster's management committee is now recommending a change to the existing format and instead seeding Cork and Kerry in 2026. The seeding of Cork, over beaten Munster finalists Clare, would be linked to Cork's higher League position this year. Cork finished fifth in Division 2, whereas Clare just missed out on promotion to the second tier when winding up third in Division 3 for the second year running. League positions, similar to the criteria for Sam Maguire involvement, would be the new Munster model of determining what two counties are seeded for the following year's provincial draw. There is quiet optimism the recommended seeding of Cork and Kerry will be passed, even in the face of expected Clare opposition. The proposal was outlined to counties at the most recent Munster Council meeting, with a vote to take place at the next meeting in July. In his match programme notes on the day of the Munster football final, provincial chairman Tim Murphy wrote: 'It is incumbent on us as a provincial council to review and consider what we can do better to further enhance Gaelic football as a spectacle within Munster and create the conditions and structures necessary to improve and enhance the game for players and spectators alike. 'We will be discussing this and working on what we can do to achieve the best possible outcome over the coming weeks and months.' The total attendance figure for this year's Munster SFC - 33,491 - was less than that which watched the drawn Munster final of 10 years ago. The Munster final crowd of 13,181, while bigger than the Kerry-Clare deciders of the past two years at Ennis (12,059) and Limerick (12,499) respectively, was still 59% down on the last non-Covid Munster football final - 2017- to take place in Killarney. It is now seven years - stretching back to the 2018 Cork-Kerry final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh - that a Munster football fixture has drawn a crowd in excess of 20,000. The average per game attendance for 2025 equates to a paltry 6,700. The Munster MFC also looks certain to be altered next season, the likely outcome that its structure will mirror the U20 format where Cork and Kerry are guaranteed a minimum of three games. At present in the minor championship, Cork and Kerry are guaranteed two championship outings, compared to three for Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford. The corresponding Munster MHC guarantees counties a minimum of four games. Cork minor football manager Keith Ricken touched on the issue following their nine-point All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Tyrone at the weekend. 'I said previously that the more games these lads play the better they will get, and that has been true. But they've played three games in Munster and one in the All-Ireland. Tyrone have played around 10 games between the Ulster league and championship. 'Until we kind of address that issue with the lack of games in Munster, then it's going to be a problem when you get into the All-Ireland series. Croke Park have called this minor, it's not minor, it's U17.' Elsewhere at Tuesday's behind-closed-doors Cork county board meeting, there was further criticism of both the executive's Munster hurling final ticket distribution and Munster Council's year-on-year ticket price increase for the game. The Cork executive was criticised for not allocating a single stand ticket to football-only clubs in their initial breakdown of ticket distribution. In the build-up to the game, St Nick's football club chairman Robert Brosnan told the Irish Examiner there was no need to distinguish between codes. 'There's enough people do that already without any good ground for it. Hurling is obviously No 1 in Cork, it is a sad state of affairs when the county board is backing that up,' said Brosnan. 'Even for an All-Ireland final, whether your county is involved or not, every club in the country receives two stand tickets. Our county is in the Munster final and we are not getting a stand ticket, not one.' Cork GAA CEO Kevin O'Donovan, in reply, said that due to demand, priority had to be given to hurling clubs over their football equivalents. The €50 and €40 stand and terrace tickets for last Saturday's game was also looked upon unfavourably by delegates, with comparison made to the €40 price for Leinster hurling final stand tickets.
Irish Examiner
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Stand ticket for Limerick-Cork Munster SHC final set at €50
Tickets for Saturday week's Munster SHC final have been priced at €50 for stand, €40 for the terrace, and €10 for U16s. As usual, €5 concession for students and OAPs is also available for the Limerick-Cork decider in TUS Gaelic Grounds, which is certain to be a sell-out with all tickets being distributed via the participating county board and season ticket holders. There is a €5 increase on stand, terrace and juvenile price points from last year's final between Limerick and Clare in Thurles. In line with the rises for round-robin tickets, it is the second jump in two years. In 2023, stand admission was €40 and terrace €30 for the Limerick-Clare clash at this year's venue. Unconsolidated attendances for the 10 round-robin games in Munster this year were 285,417, almost 15,000 more than last year's record figure of 270,750. With the Gaelic Grounds capacity currently just over 42,000, Munster GAA is expected to report another record-breaking crowd and gate receipt year for the competition. A total of 315,898 attended last year's 11 matches. The €50 stand charge to the hurling final is €20 more than what it cost to sit in Fitzgerald Stadium for the Kerry-Clare provincial senior football showdown last month. Meanwhile, there is already strong take-up among clubs for the free ticket initiative for U14s attending Sunday week's Leinster SHC and Joe McDonagh Cup final double-header in Croke Park. At the weekend, the Leinster Council announced they were making available 20,000 free tickets available for children to the Galway-Kilkenny and Kildare-Laois double-header. Thousands have already applied for the initiative where a minimum of 10 children will be allowed take in the games gratis providing they are accompanied by at least two supervising adults. Adult stand tickets are priced at €40 and €30 for Hill 16. Regular juvenile admission is €8. Read More Seánie McGrath: The Cork dressing room should be ravenous for Munster medals
Irish Examiner
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Munster SFC attendance slightly down from last year's total
The total attendance figure for this year's Munster SFC - 33,491 - was less than that which watched the drawn Munster final of 10 years ago. In the latest sign of the dwindling interest in the Munster football championship, the total attendance figure for the 2025 edition represented a slight decrease on last year's 35,823 equivalent. More worrying and, indeed, more telling, however, is that the overall 33,491 figure is smaller than the 35,651 which attended the 2015 Munster final drawn game between Cork and Kerry at Fitzgerald Stadium. The replay crowd of 32,233 wasn't far off either from standing taller than the combined total from this year's five-game series. Of the two provincial football finals played on Sunday, the crowd in Killarney was less than half the 27,137 that paid in for Galway-Mayo in Castlebar. The Munster final crowd of 13,181, while bigger than the Kerry-Clare deciders of the past two years at Ennis (12,059) and Limerick (12,499) respectively, was still 59% down on the last non-Covid Munster football final - 2017- to take place in Killarney. It is now seven years - stretching back to the 2018 Cork-Kerry final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh - that a Munster football fixture has drawn a crowd in excess of 20,000. The average per game attendance for 2025 equates to a paltry 6,700. Writing in Sunday's match programme, Munster chairman Tim Murphy accepted there is a body of work to be done to make their provincial football championship more attractive than is currently the case. 'Over recent years much has been said and written about the competitiveness and non-competitiveness of Munster football. "The Munster Football Championship received a badly needed boost two weeks ago when we witnessed an exhilarating semi-final clash between Cork and Kerry. The game, which went to extra-time, had everything that is good about Gaelic Football. 'The new rules are certainly contributing to the improvements, but it is incumbent on us as a provincial council to review and consider what we can do better to further enhance Gaelic Football as a spectacle within Munster and create the conditions and structures necessary to improve and enhance the game for players and spectators alike. 'We will be discussing this and working on what we can do to achieve the best possible outcome over the coming weeks and months.'
