Five-time All-Ireland SHC winner Seamus Flanagan believes the hurling championship format is in need of a couple of tweaks similar to the ones made in the football championship.

With only the top three sides progressing from the Leinster and Munster championships to the knockout stages of the Liam MacCarthy Cup race, two teams from each province see their seasons come to an end in May.

Speaking on the GAA Social podcast ahead of this weekend’s All-Ireland SHC semi-finals, former Limerick star Flanagan says that hurling could take a lot from the All-Ireland football championship’s current formal.

"I don't think you can have four teams coming out of Munster and three out of Leinster. There are tweaks you can make, look at the football championship. It's a masterstroke what they've done to reinvigorate it," he said.

"Football was always hurling's lesser cousin, but that was glossed over by how good Munster hurling was, it carried hurling and it's the first year in a long time you had one that was below par and it's opened up and people are seeing hurling for what it is.

"Football has the RFC (Football Review Committee) come in and they blew it out the water with the tweak. You still have the provincial championship and it means something, maybe less so in garnering you a position later in the championship, that could be looked at, but hurling could take a lot from that."

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