Joe McDonagh Cup winners should have home advantage for all their provincial games the next year – Liam O’Neill

Liam O’Neill, who was behind a €1m cash injection for five ‘developing’ hurling counties during his time in office (2012-2015), feels those counties do not benefit from away fixtures in big venues.

Indeed, Joe McDonagh Cup winners’ visits to UPMC Nowlan Park, Pearse Stadium or even Chadwicks Wexford Park often end in heavy defeats.

O’Neill cited Antrim being in Kilkenny for their opening game in the Leinster SHC last Sunday at the same time as Carlow were in Salthill, saying those games would have been better in Corrigan Park and Netwatch Cullen Park.

Reigning McDonagh Cup champions Carlow are back at the top level for the first time since 2019, while Antrim won the second-tier competition in 2022, staying up last year thanks to a final-round win over Westmeath who went down.

Under O’Neill’s suggestion, McDonagh Cup winners would have home advantage in Leinster, and in Munster if Kerry won it, guaranteed for two years.

“We have to give them a fair shot of staying up. If they had home advantage, they would probably sustain better,” he said.

“If we are serious about the teams that go up from the McDonagh Cup, there has to be some levelling of the pitch.

“Promotionally, it would be fantastic for Kilkenny to go to Corrigan Park last Sunday.”

The Laois man added that it would have been a much less daunting start for the Saffrons.

“All home games in their first year and if they survived, I would give it to them again, for a maximum of two years,” he said.

“If we want to seriously help those teams, there’s no point in talking about it. There is no point in just throwing money at it, that won’t do it. They have to get some other material advantage.

“Some serious thought has to be given to this because if you keep doing the same thing you get the same results.

“Maybe I’ll be made a liar of by Antrim and Carlow doing really well this year, and I hope I am.”

Kilkenny still beat Antrim by 17 points in Belfast last year – 5-31 to 3-20 – almost half the 32-point deficit of last Sunday in Nowlan Park.

Galway had just 11 points to spare over Carlow but last year ran up a 22-point win over Antrim in Salthill.

Ironically, the biggest margin in the 2023 Leinster SHC was Galway’s 6-33 to 0-17 win over Westmeath in Mullingar.

O’Neill accepts outliers are always possible, acknowledging Westmeath’s draw and win over Wexford in successive years and Laois beating Dublin in an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final in 2019. But he proposes home advantage for two years to the team that have just come up, and replicating that at McDonagh Cup level for the Christy Ring champions of the previous year.

“Hurling has to look at a more sustainable way for these teams. They can’t be expected to come up and just play by the same rules,” he said.

O’Neill said he would like the new hurling development committee – of which former Kilkenny manager Brian Cody is a member – to explore avenues for these teams.

“Could there be a guarantee that they’d stay up for two years but would have to win back-to-back McDonagh Cups to go up in the first place? That would be a second choice for me. I’m not going to a convention or Congress with this as a motion but I would love the discussion.”