I've been thinking about a possible alternative format for the All-Ireland Hurling Championship that could keep the existing provincial championships largely intact, while making the All-Ireland series much more expansive.

The basic idea is to have 12 teams qualify for the All-Ireland series instead of the current 6, while still fitting the competition into the existing calendar.

Provincial Championships

Munster

The Munster Championship would remain exactly as it is currently – a 5-team round robin.

Leinster

Leinster would have two groups of four, with the groups seeded.

For example:

Group A

• Dublin
• Kilkenny
• Kildare
• Carlow

Group B

• Galway
• Offaly
• Wexford
• Laois

The teams play a round robin within their group.

At the end:

• 1st in Group A vs 1st in Group B → Leinster Final
• 4th in each group play each other → relegation playoff

The relegation playoff would be between the two 4th-placed teams, with the loser relegated and eliminated from the Championship.

So, effectively, 7 Leinster teams qualify for the All-Ireland series, with only the relegated team eliminated.

The big change – the All-Ireland series

Instead of only 6 teams progressing to the All-Ireland series, 12 teams would qualify:

All 5 Munster teams

7 Leinster teams

The All-Ireland series would then begin with a preliminary knockout round.

Round 1

Round 1 would be played on the same weekend as the Munster and Leinster finals.

The 8 teams involved would be:

• 3 Munster teams that didn't reach the Munster Final
• 5 Leinster teams that didn't reach the Leinster Final, excluding the relegated team

The 3rd and 4th teams from each province would be seeded and given home advantage.

For Leinster, the teams finishing 2nd in Group A and Group B would be considered the 3rd and 4th placed Leinster teams.

The draw would avoid repeat pairings from the provincial round robin.

That gives us 4 Round 1 games.

Quarter-finals

The 4 Round 1 winners then join the 4 provincial finalists.

The provincial finalists are seeded and receive home advantage.

Again, repeat pairings from the provincial round robin would be avoided where possible.

There could potentially be a repeat provincial pairing if the results make it unavoidable. For example, if all three Munster teams win their Round 1 games, there would have to be one all-Munster quarter-final.

That gives us 8 teams in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Semi-finals

The semi-final draw would:

• Keep the two provincial champions separate, if both reach the semi-finals
• Avoid a repeat of a provincial final

The winners then progress to the All-Ireland Final as normal.

What would this look like in practice?

I've put together a hypothetical example using the 2026 calendar dates to show that the format could actually fit into the existing schedule.

The main difference is that this format adds 6 extra knockout games compared with the current system.

• 12 teams get into the All-Ireland series rather than 6
• There are significantly more Munster vs Leinster games
• Almost every team is still playing Championship hurling into June
• No team is eliminated by mid-May
• All teams that don't reach a provincial final still have a route to the All-Ireland knockout stages
• The provincial championships still matter because getting to the Final gives you a major advantage – a seeded home quarter-final
• There is still a clear reward for finishing highly in the provincial round robin

I think one of the biggest weaknesses of the current system is that some teams can effectively be finished with Championship hurling very early, while there are relatively few opportunities for teams from different provinces to play each other.

This format tries to address that while keeping the round-robin structure of the provincial championships.

What do people think?

Would this be better than the current All-Ireland hurling championship format?