All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 2026 (Munster & Leinster Championships, Liam McCarthy Cup)

As a Galway man, I think if we stayed up in 1A and won leinster, it would be classed as a good year, imo. But, I could still see Galway loose to Kilkenny in a leinster final.

Think it will be an all Munster all-Ireland final again. Probably Cork vs Limerick. Toss up to as to who would win it. Limerick at a push.

I would think Clare could be the third team out of Munster this year.

Waterford are due a year out of Munster. Don't think they've gotten out of Munster during the round Robin phase since it's inception.

The three from Leinster are easier to predict. Wexford could be in for a tougher year than normal. Hope Kildare put up a good showing in Leinster and maintain their status there. Brian Dowling is doing a fantastic job with them atm.

Waterford will absolutely ruin someone’s summer, but hard to see consistency over the full round-robin

I know Limerick look good right now but we have to go away to Clare and Cork and have the first week off so reckon it'll be 3rd place in Munster for Limerick.

Relegation and 3rd place in Leinster look like they will be really interesting so through hope more than anything I want Galway to win to finally make the top exciting again.

Limerick first 2 games away to cork and clare is very tough. Especially if they lose to cork. Clare look to have a nice schedule with waterford (h) , break week, Limerick (h) coming off the cork game. For me cork are the only certainties to finish in the top 3

Fancy kilkenny and Galway in leinster. Lot writing off wexford but they have Dublin and Galway at home and well capable of winning those games. On the other hand, they are also capable of losing to offaly or kildare who they go to first.

Munster is nearly a lottery at this stage. I'd expect Limerick to qualify but they have two tricky games away to Clare and Cork.

Better off to be in Munster. More battle hardened when you get to the knockouts although a higher risk of injury.

Wish they went weak at the sight of it last weekend

I'd throw up a seperate thread about competition structures and another one about rule changes and let the main league and championship threads be for discussion of matches/teams.

As it is, there are endless circular discussions about open draws, abolishing the provincial championships, 'throws' and steps rules.

100% correct. At the end of the day, the best team/teams will rise to the top, regardless of what structure the championship takes.

The league, atm, shows that. The 2 best teams in the country are at the top if the league table and, quite possibly, will be in the All-Ireland final later on in the year.

It's just a reality atm that most of the best counties in the country are centred around Munster (amd Limerick, in particular).

Tipp will be very tough to beat this year, I suppose it's more the idea of how difficult it is to retain an All Ireland these days, as Clare found out last year and it really does show how exceptional Limerick had been to retain it themselves so many times.