The 2026 Lory Meagher Cup final will be the curtain raiser to Dublin v Louth in the All-Ireland football championship.
The GAA have set the Longford versus Leitirm encounter for Sunday May 31 in Croke Park at 12:30. Dublin versus Louth throws in at 2:30pm.
The fixture setting is a change in previous years as the Lory Meagher decider usually formed a triple header with the Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard Cup finals.
However, abysmal attendance records, seem to have caused a change in GAA fixture planning. Indeed, last year’s triple header including, Cavan against New York, Mayo and Roscommon and Derry versus London failed to attract 5,000 spectators to headquarters.
The GAA have now decided to shake things up. The Lory Meagher final the curtain raiser to the Sunday football meeting of Dublin and Louth.
24 hours earlier, Tyrone will face Mayo or New York in the Nicky Rackard Cup final followed by the Christy Ring cup final of Derry and Kerry.
They form the undercard of the All-Ireland U20 football final.
Should they really play in Croke Park
The question must be asked, if these finals really should be getting to line out in Croke Park?
The introduction of the Christy Ring as the second tier back in 2025 was met with the carrot of live TV coverage and a Croke Park date. The same was the honour given to the Nicky Rackard Cup introduced the same year.
However, the introduction of new tiers; highlighted another issue with hurling, that a fourth tier was required. Along came the Lory Meagher Cup in 2009.
With that came the introduction of heavyweights such as Fingal and South Down. They were even once looking for Prussia and Siam! Before the introduction of the Joe McDonagh Cup as the second tier competition in 2018 it all became very community game esq. Everyone walks away with a medal and gets to play in Croke Park.
21-years after the introduction of tiers two and three, now three and four, hurling hasn’t grown. The standard remains the same with the best and not much of the rest.
The biggest play needs the biggest stage. The biggest stage, doesn’t want a fifth rate plays!
