Munster Senior Hurling League

Munster Senior Hurling League
Current season or competition: 2020 Munster Senior Hurling League
Irish	Sraith Shinsir Iomána na Mumhan
Code	Hurling
Founded	2016 (2016)
Region	Munster (GAA)
Trophy	Munster Senior League Trophy
No. of teams	6
Title holders	Limerick (2nd title)
Most titles	Clare and Limerick (2 titles)
Sponsors	Co-Op Superstores
Official website	Official website

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 (a single round-robin system) 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

Team	Wins	Years won
Clare	2	2016, 2019
Limerick	2	2018, 2020
Cork	1	2017

List of finals

Year	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Score	Venue	Winning Captain(s)	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 (capt); 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

As of the 2019 league

Pos.	Name	Team	Goals	Points	Total
1	Shane Nolan	Kerry	0	55	55
2	David Reidy	Limerick	4	28	40
3	Stephen Bennett	Waterford	3	30	39
4	Patrick Horgan	Cork	2	28	34
	Aaron Gillane	Limerick	2	28	34
5	Declan Dalton	Cork	0	33	33
6	Barry Nash	Limerick	5	15	30
7	David Reidy	Clare	2	23	29
	Niall Deasy	Clare	1	26	29
8	Declan Hannon	Limerick	1	23	26
	Pádraig Boyle	Kerry	1	23	26

Overall

year	Name	Team	Goals	Points	Total
2016	Declan Hannon	Limerick	1	21	24
2017	Patrick Horgan	Cork	2	27	33
2018	Aaron Gillane	Limerick	1	21	24
2019	Stephen Bennett	Waterford	2	25	31

Single game

year	Name	Team	Goals	Points	Total
2016	Declan Hannon	Limerick	1	9	12
2017	Pauric Mahony	Waterford	0	14	14
2018	Pádraig Boyle	Kerry	1	10	13
2019	Stephen Bennett	Waterford	2	12	18

Finals

year	Name	Team	Goals	Points	Total
2016	Declan Hannon	Limerick	0	7	7
2017	Peter Casey	Limerick	0	9	9
	Patrick Horgan	Cork	0	9	9
2018	Aaron Gillane	Limerick	0	8	8
2019	Tony Kelly	Clare	2	3	9
	Séamus Callanan	Tipperary	0	9	9