The Munster Council have voted to delay the introduction of seeding in their provincial football championship by 12 months.
Last July, the province had taken the decision to introduce seeding on the basis of league performance for the next three years, meaning Kerry and Cork would receive a bye to the semi-finals and be kept apart in the draw.
However, on Monday night, the decision was taken to postpone the introduction of seeding until the 2027 championship.
The draw for the 2026 Munster SFC – which takes place on 27 November – will follow the same lines as last year, with this year’s provincial finalists (Kerry and Clare) receiving a bye to the semi-finals.
Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford will fill the quarter-final spots.
The plan remains to introduce seeding from the 2027 campaign onwards, with teams jockeying for league position in 2026 to avail of a seeding spot for the following summer. Clare or Limerick – both in Division 3 for the coming league – would need to get promoted, alongside Cork getting relegated from Division 2 for one of them to displace the Rebels in the seeded spot for 2027.
The postponement follows an outcry from affected counties, most vocally from Clare, where former manager Colm Collins and the county’s Munster Council delegate Bernard Keane lashed out at the decision.
Limerick manager Jimmy Lee – who guided his side to the Tailteann Cup decider this summer – expressed his disappointment that their county board had initially voted for the seeding proposal, saying that both he and his players felt “disrespected”.
In the 2025 championship, Clare qualified for the Sam Maguire competition by virtue of beating Tipperary in the Munster semi-final, thereby displacing Division 3 champions Offaly in the top tier.