No change in scoring difference rules for this year's Cork championships 

Cork County Board will continue to apply scoring difference from all group games as a tie-breaker if two or more clubs finish level on points in this year’s championships.

Last Friday night, there was confusion in Clare as Sixmilebridge were eliminated from the senior championship as a result of a change brought in at Congress this year. The new rule states that, where scoring difference is used, it should only apply to the games involving the teams that finish tied – under the previous method, Sixmilebridge would have qualified for the knockout stages with Crusheen knocked out but the opposite happened as a result of the change.

In Cork, when two teams finish tied at the end of a group, the initial tie-breaker is the game between those clubs. If that match finished in a draw or there are three – or even four – teams tied, then scoring difference is the determining factor.

That has been the case since the restructuring of the championships and the introduction of a group phase in 2020 and, as the championship regulations for 2023 were determined prior to last December’s draws.

With four-team groups used, there is a total of 12 points to be won. Scoring difference is used if a group winner has six points and other three teams have two each; if there is a three-way tie for top spot on four each with the other side failing to register; and in the unlikely event of the four teams each winning one game, drawing one and losing one or all six games being drawn - in such an instance, there would be a four-way tie on three points.

County board vice-chairperson Pat Horgan – who also chairs the county competitions control committee, says that, while the revised ruling will apply from 2024, there will not be a change mid-stream.

“What we have been doing for the last three years, we’ll be continuing it this year,” he says.

“Basically, we have a Cork GAA competitions document and, every time we send out a championship update, we send out the competitions document as well.

“We’ll be operating from that, as we did for the last three years. Obviously, going forward, there will be little adjustments made but they’re not major.

“At the moment, what we do if two teams are tied is to use the head-to-head. If that match was a draw or if more than two teams are level, we use scoring difference from all of the games.

“In the future, that will change in that it will be scoring difference from only the games involving the teams that are level. We noted the decision made at Congress and it was mentioned at county board meetings at that time but the championship regulations were already in place and we opted to stick with those for this year.

“The bottom is line is that we will be adjudicating on it this year the same as we have been and next year there will be a slightly amended document put forward.”