“I don’t think it’s fair on teams” - Jamie O'Meara

Mount Sion manager Jamie O’Meara believes that the current championship schedule is too demanding on club sides.

The 2025 SHC is being run over nine straight weekends with the county final provisionally fixed for Sunday, September 7. He thinks that gap weeks should be brought in for the knockout stages.

“I don’t think it’s fair on teams to be honest with you,” O’Meara commented after Saturday’s win over Lismore.

“I think there should be a few byes built in there. I’m pretty sure that most teams feel the same. It’s actually madness to run this thing off in nine weeks. Whatever about the groups being played five weeks in a row, during the knockout stages, teams deserve a chance to recover.

“Have a bye week between each of the knockout games. What you’re going to see is that by the end of the championship, teams are going to be battered and bruised. Fellas are going to be playing with sore hamstrings, and I don’t think you’re going to get the best out of the clubs at the end of the year. Put a few bye weeks in there, let the teams recover, and let’s have everyone at their best playing knockout hurling, which is what everyone wants to see.” 

An elongated championship would also allow players to make a stronger case to Waterford manager Peter Queally and his backroom team. “For the likes of Peter going around watching games, I think he wants to see lads at their best and not lads coming off the back of seven or eight weeks in a row. I think it’s madness doing that. It is what it is; we can’t change it.”