Promoted sides in hurling have enjoyed bounce at higher grade

Last week, we looked at how promoted teams have tended to do well in the county football championships.

While it is too early to make any judgements with regard to 2026, the early signs are of that trend continuing – of the five sides making the step up, only Knocknagree lost and they were making the biggest step, up to premier senior.

As the hurling competitions begin this weekend, is there a similar level of momentum pushing teams to meet the greater challenges?

By and large, yes, though hurling has had one instance of a team winning a county title only to suffer relegation the following year – that was Aghabullogue in the 2024 Premier IHC.

That middle grade is always so tight that anyone can be sucked into such danger and their play-off with Kilworth went to a replay while they were also trying to negotiate a Premier IFC campaign where they reached the final.

Thankfully for the Coachford club, they bounced back again last year and so will hope to benefit from the previous PIHC experience.

It was an experience that went against the grain, however. Far more often, the teams coming up have taken the steps in their in their stride – indeed, some have even gone on to claim another title.

The Premier JHC (originally known as the Lower IHC) has been the stand-out grade for such occurrences. In 2021, Lisgoold followed junior A victory by going all the way; Ballygiblin did the same in 2022 and also benefited from the re-classification as they were Cork’s representative in the AIB Munster Club JHC and went on to All-Ireland glory.

Erin’s Own made it three from three as their second team won the fifth tier in 2023, just a year after junior A glory. In ordinary circumstances, Nemo Rangers’ achievement of making the semi-finals last year in their first campaign up would be admirable; it only pales in light of what gone before.

While Lisgoold were going back-to-back in 2020 and 2021, Castlemartyr were doing the same a level above as they won the IAHC at the first attempt. The next year, Lisgoold would make a good tilt at doing similar, only losing in the semi-finals after extra time.

Ballygiblin made the IAHC quarter-finals in 2023, while Erin’s Own came agonisingly close to a third consecutive title, losing out – to Lisgoold – after a replay in 2024.

Last year, Russell Rovers didn’t make the knockout stages but were unlucky to do so, missing out on scoring difference to Midleton and eventual finalists Bandon.

After Castlemartyr’s two in a row, they almost made it three on the trot – they reached the 2022 Premier IHC final but lost out to Inniscarra in a replay.

Apart from that the PIHC has been a tough nut to crack the first time around, with teams needing to acclimatise – Éire Óg (2021), Dungourney (2023) and Lisgoold (2025) finished third in their groups.

Conversely, teams progressing from the PIHC to senior A have done well, apart from Inniscarra needing to win the relegation play-off in 2023. Courcey Rovers reached the final in 2022, Castlelyons were semi-finalists in 2024 and Blarney reached the quarter-finals in 2021. Watergrasshill, fresh from All-Ireland intermediate glory, won two group games last year but were unlucky to be edged by Blarney and Bride Rovers in what was as tough a group as they could have got.

Unsurprisingly, the very top tier is not one that can be easily infiltrated – until Glen Rovers last year, no promoted side had managed to reach the quarter-finals.

However, just as importantly, none have been relegated either, with only Charleville in 2021 having to contest that game in their first year up. Kanturk and Fr O’Neills came third in their groups in 2022 and 2023 respectively while Newcestown were fourth in 2024 but avoided the play-off.

For Bride Rovers, Ballincollig, Aghabullogue, Kilbrittain and Kilshannig, the new challenges will come this weekend as they look to adjust to life at a higher level.

Of course, what has gone before is never a cast-iron guarantee of what will happen in the future, but five years’ worth of data – 25 champions – serves to give a good wisdom-of-crowds idea to expect.