Founded 1964 Most titles Blackrock (5 titles) | Title holders Ballyea (1st title) | |
The Munster Senior Club Hurling Championship is an annual hurling competition organised by the Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association since 1964 for the top hurling clubs in the province of Munster in Ireland. It is currently sponsored by Allied Irish Bank and officially known as the AIB Munster GAA Hurling Senior Club Championship.
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The series of games are played during the autumn and winter months with the Munster final currently being played on the second last Sunday in November. The prize for the winning team is the O'Neill Cup. The championship has always been played on a straight knockout basis whereby once a team loses they are eliminated from the series.
The Munster Championship is an integral part of the wider All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship. The winners of the Munster final join the champions of Galway, Leinster and Ulster in the semi-final stages of the All-Ireland Senior Club Championship.
Five clubs currently participate in the Munster Championship, with the Kerry champions participating at intermediate level.
The title has been won at least once by clubs representing five of the six Munster counties. No Kerry club has won the provincial title. The all-time record-holders are Blackrock, who have won the competition five times.
Ballyea of Clare are the 2016 champions.
Format
The Munster Club Championship is a knockout tournament with pairings drawn at random – there are no seeds.
Each match is played as a single leg. If a match is drawn there is a replay. Drawn replays are now settled with extra time, however, if both sides are still level at the end of extra time a second replay takes place and so on until a winner is found.
The format has remained virtually the same since the very first Munster Championship in 1964. Currently, an open draw is made in which three of the five teams automatically qualify for the semi-final stage of the competition. Two other teams play in a lone quarter-final with the winner joining the other three teams at the semi-final stage. Once a team is defeated they are eliminated from the championship.
The Munster Championship has wider implications for the GAA All-Ireland Club Hurling Senior Championship. The winners of the Munster final automatically qualify for the semi-final stages of the All-Ireland series of games. There is no "back-door system" for the defeated finalists.
Five of the six counties of Munster – Clare, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford – are represented in the championship. The club champions of Kerry, the sixth county in the province, contested the senior championship until recently, however, they now contest the Munster Intermediate Club Hurling Championship.
Trophies
At the end of the Munster final, the winning team is presented with a trophy. The cup, named the O'Neill Cup, is held by the winning team until the following year's final. Traditionally, the presentation is made at a special rostrum in the stand where GAA and political dignitaries and special guests view the match.
The cup is decorated with ribbons in the colours of the winning team. During the game the cup actually has both teams' sets of ribbons attached and the runners-up ribbons are removed before the presentation. The winning captain accepts the cup on behalf of his team before giving a short speech. Individual members of the winning team then have an opportunity to come to the rostrum to lift the cup.
The present trophy was donated by the Sarsfield's club in Cork in 1972 to commemorate Billy O'Neill who founded their club in 1903.