Unlucky Waterford faced almost impossible task against Limerick due to scheduling

This is the sixth iteration of the provincial round-robin championship. In Munster, the format has proved an outstanding success. A general level of competitiveness has been established throughout the province.

This is despite the apparently unpromising statistics of Limerick having won all but one of those championships – plus the two in between during Covid – and Clare having been beaten finalists in four of the five years to date. Waterford have also failed to survive the format by finishing in the top three in any of those years.

Each year has nonetheless seen drama over who will contest the provincial final and who will get the third All-Ireland ticket. Any notions that the Munster title would become a pointless digression have been buried by capacity attendances at the last three high-voltage finals between Limerick and Clare.

Of course, the format is vulnerable. At least four teams have to be in contention to guarantee a contest for three places.

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One of the aspects of the round-robin format that has played a big role in both the enjoyment and competitiveness of the championship has been the guarantee of home matches.

This is of particular importance to Clare and Waterford whose grounds were generally not considered big enough for Munster fixtures and as a result under the old system, home advantage was a rarity.

It might also explain why Waterford have such a poor record because in two of the years, Walsh Park wasn’t available to them because of reconstruction work and they had to play “home” matches elsewhere. The most convenient venue would have been Nowlan Park in Kilkenny but that was in another province and the county instead ended up playing its “home” matches in Thurles and bizarrely on one occasion, Limerick.

Having Walsh Park restored and available was particularly looked forward to this year after a spring spent in Division 1B. The 2025 rotation was to bring All-Ireland champions Clare and their four-in-a-row predecessors Limerick to Waterford.

It began well with a win over Clare the week before last but the schedules ordained that their next home match would be six days later against Limerick, who had enjoyed a week off the previous weekend.

That short lead-in time triggered apprehension before the match, especially against rested opponents, never mind ones as formidable as Limerick. After a respectable performance, Waterford were defeated on Saturday and afterwards manager Peter Queally outlined the difficulty of their situation – processing a win over the All-Ireland champions while simultaneously preparing to play the Munster champions.

“We try and build ourselves up and get it into our heads that six days is nothing. We did very little physically, but mentally and emotionally it can be hard to get down and get back up again in such a short space of time.

“We’ve been building for probably seven months for the Clare game and six days then to get ready for Limerick. And it’s Limerick, remember. They’re six-in-a-row Munster champions and they showed why today.

“They’re a big, strong, physical hurling team and it showed that they’re probably, again, the team to beat this year.”

The data indicated that Waterford had no chance and not just because their matches against Limerick have been the one constant in Munster: played five, lost five, the only entirely one-way relationship in the province. Now it’s six and six.

Other more relevant evidence is that when a team is obliged to play a week later against opponents, who had no match the previous weekend, the win rate is less than a third, seven out of 22. More damningly, a team forced like Waterford at the weekend, to play six days later against a rested team, can cling to no positive precedent.

It has simply never happened. In the five times such a fixture has taken place, the team in Waterford’s position has never won although three of the matches (60 per cent) did end in draws.

Waterford’s Michael Kiely and Kyle Hayes of Limerick compete for possession during the game in Walsh Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho

Then there is the promotional loss. After a season in a lower division, Waterford got their chance to have home fixtures against top teams but because of scheduling, the second of these opportunities to market the hurlers on the big stage had to be exploited within six days.

Such has been the interest in the Munster championship together with the rise of Cork that ticket sales have been both healthy and robust but the buzz around the place after beating Clare didn’t get much currency. Of course, Waterford had been the beneficiaries of the same scheduling in their first match against Clare who had played their epic draw against Cork only six days previously.

The round-robin era really took off with Cork’s home match against Limerick on the June bank holiday in 2018 when 34,607 turned out in Pairc Uí Chaoimh. It was one of the five matches where a rested team (Limerick) played a side that had been in action six days previously (Cork) – and one of the draws.

For context, Limerick, a then rising force who would win their first All-Ireland in 45 years later that summer, lost Aaron Gillane to red card before half-time and their captain Declan Hannon to injury.

That they managed a draw in the circumstances was actually further evidence of the unfairness of the six-day turnaround, compounded by the fact that Cork were playing a third match in 14 days.

One player’s parents said that he literally hadn’t been able to get out of bed the following day.

There were also examples of teams having to play in four successive weekends in both provinces. Of the four who had such a schedule, three did not qualify for the All-Ireland stages.

These fixture shortcomings were duly addressed and the fixtures reorganised accordingly.

It is not easy to juggle fixtures in such a constricted calendar and these scheduling misfortunes come down ultimately to the luck of the draw but when that results in such unfairness to teams, might it be time to reconsider the draw?