Munster GAA CEO Kieran Leddy has claimed the schedule was too tight for last year's Munster SHC final to go to a replay.

Instead, the final was settled via an historic penalty shootout which saw Cork end Limerick's bid for a remarkable six-in-a-row. Writing in his annual report to Friday's Munster Convention in Tralee, Leddy also rejects the idea of four teams progressing from the Munster SHC to the All-Ireland series, contending that "this suggestion will do far more harm than good to the profile of hurling."

On the replay debate, he stated: "No sooner had the Munster senior hurling final concluded when calls were made for replays to be restored in provincial finals.

"However, it is a case of 'being careful what we wish for’. A replay would have taken place on the following Saturday evening, meaning the runner-up would have been playing the quarter-final the week after the replay and therefore subjected to playing three weeks in a row.

"I was amazed that very few asked if a replay was a fair situation on the players, which in my view, it is not.

"If we build in a replay weekend, with the All-Ireland quarter-final two weeks after, then the Munster winner waits for five weeks for the All-Ireland semi-final under the current format, which is also very unfair on the winning team. We need to stop harping back to the days of replays.

"The landscape has changed dramatically, as the number of championship games being played at club and inter-county level has increased dramatically. Replays in the middle of a season are simply too disruptive. They always were, but knockout championships, or the shorter back door formats, made them possible. That is no longer the case."

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