Code Hurling No. of teams 5 Number of teams 5 | Founded 2016 Title holders Cork (1st title) Region Munster | |
Irish Sraith Shinsir Iomána na Mumhan Trophy Munster Senior Hurling League Trophy Instances 2016 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.
Contents
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.
Five teams currently participate in the Munster Senior Hurling League, however, six teams are actually eligible to participate. Participation or non-participation can be decided on an annual basis.
Cork are the current champions.
Format
There are currently five teams in the Munster League. During the course of the four-week season each team plays the others once (a single round-robin system) for a total of four 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 two teams after the group stage contest the final.
Stadia
As of the 2017 season, Munster League hurling has been played in nine 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.