2026 Leinster hurling championship

[Bord na Mona man]

2026 Leinster GAA Senior Hurling Championship


Date Round 1
18th/19th April Galway v Kilkenny Pearse Stadium
Kildare v Wexford Cedral St Conleths Park
Offaly v Dublin Glenisk O'Connor Park

Round 2
25th/26th April Kilkenny v Wexford UPMC Nowlan Park
Galway v Offaly Pearse Stadium
Dublin v Kildare Parnell Park
2nd/3rd May Break Week

Round 3
9th/10th May Offaly v Kilkenny Glenisk O'Connor Park
Kildare v Galway Cedral St Conleths Park
Wexford v Dublin Chadwicks Wexford Park

Round 4
16th/17th May Kilkenny v Kildare UPMC Nowlan Park
Offaly v Wexford Glenisk O'Connor Park
Galway v Dublin Pearse Stadium

Round 5
23rd/24th May Dublin v Kilkenny Parnell Park
Wexford v Galway Chadwicks Wexford Park
Kildare v Offaly Cedral St Conleths Park
6th June Leinster GAA Senior Hurling & Joe McDonagh Final

[private joker]

Tough 3 matches to start off with.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Five tough matches, but shur you wouldn't have it any other way.

[Géill Slí]

A better draw than last year’s all the same, imo. Dublin and Wexford at home are the games we should be targeting (along with Kildare away obviously). If we show improvement /growth from last year, third place is achievable and would represent progress. Dublin did improve a lot after their first round vs us last year, but I still think they’re within reach if we keep heading in the right direction.

[Faithfully]

Exact same draw as last year, with home/away rotating. Kilkenny and Wexford don't have their usual last day game, which is the main change from a general perspective.

[Faithful Future]

Have to target Dublin, Wexford and Kildare.

Hopefully the exposure to Division 1A will stick to us.

Has the panel started back at gym programmes yet?

Any word on new additions? Perhaps Shane Rigney, Luke Nolan. Any whispers of other new panellists?

[Bord na Mona man]

Exact same draw as last year, with home/away rotating. Kilkenny and Wexford don't have their usual last day game, which is the main change from a general perspective.

There may have grumblings that by Gameweek 5, Kilkenny are already booked for the Leinster final and Wexford were being handed a better win chance in their cup final.

[Bord na Mona man]

In 2025 Offaly led in 3 games with 10 minutes to go, and won one of them.
Home advantage will be an assistance against Wexford and Dublin, but that alone won't swing it. Both those counties will see those tight wins as a warning shot and probably take Offaly more seriously in 2026.

This year it felt like a nuisance to have Antrim on the last day. It was always looming and overshadowed the games leading up to it.

Funnily enough, for 2026 I'd rather be playing Kildare on the last day. If they were going to turn Offaly over, I believe their best time to do so would be earlier in the series, where Offaly may be eyeing up scalps elsewhere.
Kildare's approach will be to go full pelt at the start on Leinster, and see how they stack up against the big teams. Being new to it, they'll want to create positive momentum and get the county behind them.
Whereas seasoned survivors like Antrim were always going to use the early matches as a phony war.

[Faithfully]

Exact same draw as last year, with home/away rotating. Kilkenny and Wexford don't have their usual last day game, which is the main change from a general perspective.

There may have grumblings that by Gameweek 5, Kilkenny are already booked for the Leinster final and Wexford were being handed a better win chance in their cup final.

Yes, in Dublin in particular it was becoming an increasingly sore point due to the fact that they were usually the ones adversely affected by it.

[Bord na Mona man]

Exact same draw as last year, with home/away rotating. Kilkenny and Wexford don't have their usual last day game, which is the main change from a general perspective.

There may have grumblings that by Gameweek 5, Kilkenny are already booked for the Leinster final and Wexford were being handed a better win chance in their cup final.

Yes, in Dublin in particular it was becoming an increasingly sore point due to the fact that they were usually the ones adversely affected by it.

Of course.
Though it worked wildly in our favour in 2023 when Wexford had just lost to Westmeath and were set to be relegated to the Joe McDonagh. Kilkenny phoned it in on the last day allowing Wexford survive.
A big chance Offaly would have stayed stuck in the Joe McD an extra year with Wexford to contend with.

[Cheddar]

Handy one to save. Also, what’s with it being announced so early before the league has even been announced.

[Hurling2024]

Dublin and Wexford last year were winnable games, with the feeling a home game would’ve seen us over the line - so they have to be the 2 we really target, aswel as Kildare obviously.

I do hope that 1A league hurling stands to us and sees us over the line - a genuine possibility for 3 wins and qualification into knockout hurling if we’re lucky.

[Hurling2024]

Have to target Dublin, Wexford and Kildare.

Hopefully the exposure to Division 1A will stick to us.

Has the panel started back at gym programmes yet?

Any word on new additions? Perhaps Shane Rigney, Luke Nolan. Any whispers of other new panellists?

Would love to see Rigney in, and give the likes of Ben Miller who didn’t get the game time last year, even a small bit of hurling in the league games. Just to see what we have come the business end of things

[chimbonda]

Will Killian Sampson continue to play in the forwards with Shirley centre back or might they look at Sampson centre back?

[Anon444]

After his year this year, the obvious solution for me is for Sampson to be centre back and Shirley pushed onto the wing. Maybe we might be light on forwards, so he’ll be pushed up and he can definitely do an equal job up there in my eyes. In terms of getting the best out of the squad, I think Shirley is best at 5 or 7, driving forward mainly instead of having to sit and pick out lads. He’s young so in a couple of years I have no doubt that he will probably slot in at 6, but I think make use of his pace on the wings.

Not sure if there’ll be much turnover in terms of the squad, but we need to be trying to get into 3rd place to keep the momentum up overall. We have a real opportunity to replace Wexford in terms of that goes up/comes down team. Kildare are on a real high, can’t leave it up to a nervy last weekend.