Clare’s John Conlon, left, and Wexford’s Cathal Dunbar look on as their teammates Lee Chin, 11, and Conor McDonald contest a dropping ball during this year’s All-Ireland SHC quarter-final. Photo: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
The All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals look set to be restored to a Sunday afternoon billing in 2025 with the Tailteann Cup semi-final switching to the second last Saturday in June instead.
The GAA is due to issue its national fixtures master schedule for 2025 in the coming days after they were approved at Central Council over the weekend.
There are some issues to resolve and one of them is believed to be the scheduling of the All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals. But after five years of Saturday billing, a return to Sunday looks on the cards. The final call will be made by the Central Competitions Control Committee.
The All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals have not been played on Sundays 2019. In 2020 and 2021 they were played on Saturdays, as part of revised schedules that were compromised by Covid.
With the introduction of the Tailteann Cup in 2022 and a commitment to give the semi-finals of football’s second-tier competition the Sunday slots with live TV coverage, the fourth and fifth last games in the hurling championships have remained fixed for Saturdays.
That has led to criticism that games of such importance are being downgraded which does not help the promotion of hurling.
They have been further compromised with timing. This year the Cork/Dublin All-Ireland quarter-final threw in at 1.15 on a Saturday afternoon in Thurles because of TV scheduling. RTÉ2 was broadcasting the European Championships which put the quarter-finals on RTÉ1, requiring an earlier start time.
RTÉ, which has the rights to the All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals, are believed to be keen on Sunday slots again while GAA president Jarlath Burns advocated that change last summer when he called a special meeting of Central Council to discuss the issue just six days out from the dates in question.
With Wexford involved but also hosting Féile na nGael on the third Saturday last June, Burns looked for a switch with the Tailteann Cup semi-finals to facilitate them. But there was also a sense that the hurling quarter-finals needed a bigger stage. The vote was narrowly lost and the fixtures remained as they were.