*Joe Rafferty chases after Tadhg Morley. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
A PROPOSAL by Clare GAA to give home advantage to football counties in the Munster SFC against Kerry and Cork has been defeated with officers on the provincial body having the casting vote.
Munster officials have gone against the counties of Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford who attempted to bring in a more level playing field in the senior football championship by giving them home advantage against the powerhouses of Cork and Kerry in semi-finals and finals.
At a sitting of the Munster Council held in the past week, delegates from Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford all voted in favour of the home advantage proposal. Delegates from Cork and Kerry voted against the proposal which was put forward by Joe Garry and John Callinan.
Four officers on the Munster Council sided with Kerry and Cork, some of these officials are from the counties that were seeking to bring about some change. They included, Vice-Chairman, Sean Michael O’Regan (Waterford), Treasurer Paul Foley (Limerick) and PRO Richard Tobin (Waterford).
Chairman of Munster GAA, Tim Murphy ended up with the casting vote after the proposal had led to a tie of eight votes for and eight against. The Kerry man went against the proposal prompting it to be defeated. Munster GAA have been contacted for comment byThe Clare Echo.
“You can imagine our frustration when four counties were looking for change but two counties and four officers voted against it,” a Clare GAA official told The Clare Echo. The decision is likely to cause frustration among football die-hards in the four counties, particularly with the move of some officials to go against the wishes of their own native counties.
While this proposal was defeated, the level of support among the four counties has strengthened the resolve of Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford to come back with a fresh proposal.
Clare GAA insiders have told The Clare Echo they are now looking at other options, “the feeling from Clare GAA is this is far from dead in the water”.
Next year, the two counties in the Munster SFC with the highest National Football League ranking will be seeded in opposing semi-finals. This was first floated in July 2025 but its introduction was paused in November 2025 for one year following strong backlash. It will come into play for 2027 and 2028 with Kerry and Cork seeded in each semi-final.
Such plans regarding league rankings were never brought to the table when Clare managed by Colm Collins competed in Division 2 of the Allianz National Football League and were one of the most consistent sides in the second tier.
Permanent home advantage would have been given to Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford in the semi-finals and finals of the Munster championship when facing off with Cork and Kerry for as long as the seeded format exists, under the Clare proposal.
Chairman Murphy had not been shy in voicing his opposition to the proposal. He appeared on a special Irish Examiner podcast to air his views. He stated that not all of the four unseeded counties are against the proposed new format, the introduction of which has been delayed. “I wouldn’t subscribe to the view that every one of the four counties have an issue with the seeding, they obviously had concerns but we had a fairly frank and robust discussion at our Council meeting and afterwards when engaging with the counties and with the GPA, on balance there is an acceptance, it is not universal but the majority view would be that it is the right thing to try it for a three-year period, it is not set in stone but if we continued to allow an open draw to continue, the likelihood of totally imbalanced Munster finals would continue in the future”.
When the seeded plans were first mooted, there was not support among the four unseeded counties, the move of the four to unit on the issue has given Clare GAA further confidence to explore alternative options with another proposal.
