Munster Senior Hurling League
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 will be the first year that all six eligible teams will participate in the Munster Senior Hurling League. Participation or non-participation can be decided on an annual basis.
Clare are the current champions.
Format
There are currently six teams in the Munster League, split into two groups of three. During the course of the four-week season each team plays the others in their group once for a total of two games. Teams receive two points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points and then scoring difference. The top team in each group after the group stage contest the final.Stadia
Location | Stadium | Capacity |
Limerick | Gaelic Grounds | 50,000 |
Killarney | Fitzgerald Stadium | 43,180 |
Waterford | Walsh Park | 17,000 |
Dungarvan | Fraher Field | 15,000 |
Tralee | Austin Stack Park | 12,000 |
Mallow | Mallow GAA Complex | 8,000 |
Sixmilebridge | O'Garney Park | 7,000 |
Kilmallock | FitzGerald Park | 4,000 |
Nenagh | MacDonagh Park |
As of the 2020 season, Munster League hurling has been played in ten 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
List of finals
Year | Winners | Score | Runners-up | Score | Venue | Winning Captain | Winning Team | |
2016 | Clare | 0-18 | Limerick | 0-17 | Gaelic Grounds | Cian Dillon Tony Kelly | 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. | |
2017 | Cork | 1-21 | Limerick | 1-20 | Gaelic Grounds | Stephen McDonnell | 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. | |
2018 | Limerick | 0-16 | Clare | 0-10 | Gaelic Grounds | Paul Browne Declan Hannon | 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 | |
2019 | Clare | 4-19 | Tipperary | 1-18 | Gaelic Grounds | Tony Kelly | 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. | |
2020 | Limerick | 1-32 | Cork | 0-20 | Gaelic Grounds | Cian Lynch | Barry Hennessey; Tom Condon, Richie English, Aaron Costello; Diarmuid Byrnes, Dan Morrissey, Barry Nash; Robbie Hanley, Cian Lynch ; 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 |
Top scorers
All time
Pos. | Name | Team | Goals | Points | Total |
1 | Kerry | 0 | 55 | 55 | |
2 | Limerick | 4 | 28 | 40 | |
3 | Waterford | 3 | 30 | 39 | |
4 | Cork | 2 | 28 | 34 | |
4 | Limerick | 2 | 28 | 34 | |
5 | Cork | 0 | 33 | 33 | |
6 | Limerick | 5 | 15 | 30 | |
7 | Clare | 2 | 23 | 29 | |
7 | Clare | 1 | 26 | 29 | |
8 | Limerick | 1 | 23 | 26 | |
8 | Kerry | 1 | 23 | 26 |
Overall
year | Name | Team | Goals | Points | Total |
2016 | Limerick | 1 | 21 | 24 | |
2017 | Cork | 2 | 27 | 33 | |
2018 | Limerick | 1 | 21 | 24 | |
2019 | Waterford | 2 | 25 | 31 |
Single game
year | Name | Team | Goals | Points | Total |
2016 | Limerick | 1 | 9 | 12 | |
2017 | Waterford | 0 | 14 | 14 | |
2018 | Kerry | 1 | 10 | 13 | |
2019 | Waterford | 2 | 12 | 18 |
Finals
year | Name | Team | Goals | Points | Total |
2016 | Limerick | 0 | 7 | 7 | |
2017 | Limerick | 0 | 9 | 9 | |
2017 | Cork | 0 | 9 | 9 | |
2018 | Limerick | 0 | 8 | 8 | |
2019 | Clare | 2 | 3 | 9 | |
2019 | Tipperary | 0 | 9 | 9 |