Munster football seeding: How do Cork and Clare's recent records against Kerry compare

Not long after Clare had been beaten by Louth in their final round robin game in Portlaoise in June, which ended their championship season, Clare manager Peter Keane was more inclined to talk about what might happen down the line than what had just happened.

Keane came out strongly against any move to ensure that Cork and Kerry would be seeded ahead of next year’s Munster championship. 

With the provincial council set to vote on the matter over the following weeks, Keane was getting his first strike in loud and early. 

“I think it would be a terrible move for football in the province," said Keane.

As soon as the Munster council voted last week to seed Cork and Kerry in separate semi-finals in this autumn’s 2026 Munster championship draw, Clare were again the loudest critics of the decision, especially after reaching three Munster finals in a row. 

“That's rather unjust and indefensible, really,” Clare chairperson Kieran Keating told Clare FM's Morrning Focus last Friday.

Former Clare manager Colm Collins also heavily criticised the decision. 

“The Munster Championship is a complete joke,” said Collins.  “The Munster Council, in their profound wisdom, have decided to give Cork a leg up the ladder by seeding them. 

The Munster finals haven’t been competitive, but they’re not going to solve it by doing this.” 

The Munster Council awarded Cork and Kerry byes based on their higher league placings but Keating argued that Clare’s record against Kerry is comparable to Cork’s against Kerry, which it hasn’t been in recent years.

NARROW LOSS

Cork have shipped some hidings from their neighbours but they did beat Kerry in the 2020 championship and almost beat them in this year’s Munster semi-final before narrowly losing out in extra-time.

The closest Clare have got to Kerry in the last 15 years was a four-point defeat in the 2014 semi-final. 

Clare ran Kerry six points in 2019 and to seven points in last year’s Munster final but their overall numbers against Kerry don’t make for good reading; in their last 11 championship matches against Kerry across the last 15 years, Clare’s average losing margin is 0-12.

Eight of those 11 defeats were in either Munster quarter or semi-finals, which was more infuriating again for Clare at a time when they felt they were stronger than Cork and were the second-best team in Munster for a significant number of those years. 

It was just their misfortune to have kept getting drawn against Kerry in Munster.

Clare were mad for a crack at Cork during those seasons but they never got it. 

The one year they did, in 2023, Clare beat Cork in the Munster quarter-final.

Every team always accepts how the draw can go but Keating argued that because Cork are now “in a slightly better position than us (with their league position) they've started taking advantage.” 

Clare and the other three other Munster counties outside of Cork and Kerry have been down this road before. 

The draw was open between 2009 and 2013 but as soon as it was changed ahead of the 2014 championship, with the Munster Council seeding Cork and Kerry, Waterford, Clare, Tipperary and Limerick all threatened to boycott the 2015 Munster championship. 

All four counties also refused to play in the 2014 McGrath Cup. The system changed from 2015, where the previous year’s finalists earned semi-final byes. 

Changing the system now is based on numbers and money. The last three Clare-Kerry Munster finals saw an aggregate attendance of 37,739 for all three games.

When Cork and Kerry met in the drawn Munster final in Killarney 10 years ago, the attendance that day, 35,651, almost matched the total for the last three finals...

However, that’s 10 years ago and Cork-Kerry games are no longer such a big draw.  When the sides met in this year’s Munster semi-final in April, the attendance was 14,358, which was only marginally higher than the 13,181 that attended the Munster final in Killarney two weeks later.

BIGGER DRAW

There hasn’t been over 20,000 at a Cork-Kerry match for eight years, but a Cork-Kerry Munster final will still always draw a bigger crowd than any other pairing in the province.

Going on form and results, Cork and Kerry were the two best teams in the province this year but that’s not how the other teams see this move; it’s been perceived as another opportunity to hand more of an advantage to Cork.

It's harder again for the Munster Council to justify when the seedings are not based on the league placings prior to the championship, which dictates some teams inclusion either in the Sam Maguire or Tailteann Cup.

Despite Cork appearing to be the second-best team in the province now, the principle of this move is still all wrong. The Munster Council have torn up a 35-year open draw system to give Cork what Colm Collins termed “a leg up the ladder”.

Yet Clare and Limerick in particular will feel capable of knocking Cork off that ladder if they get the opportunity next year. 

Cork may have put in decent performances against Kerry in recent seasons but their record against other sides certainly doesn’t entitle them to a seeding contrived not only to benefit them, but the coffers of the Munster Council.

As well as handing all the other teams in Munster extra motivation, this decision also places extra pressure on Cork now to deliver and to at least reach a Munster final. Because if they don’t, Cork and the Munster Council are going to have serious egg on their faces.