The 2020 Galway Senior Hurling Championship. was the 123rd staging of the Galway Senior Hurling Championship since its establishment in 1887. It was won by St. Thomas' for the third consecutive year and the fifth time in total. Kinvara participated in the senior championship having been promoted from the intermediate competition in 2019 but were subsequently relegated. The competition was sponsored by Brooks for 3 years starting in 2020.
Competition format
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland the initial draw was scrapped, the format was changed and the groupings redrawn on 29 June 2020.
Twenty four teams compete in the initial group stages of the championship – the top ranked twelve teams compete in the Senior A Group and the second ranked twelve teams compete in the Senior B Group. Eight teams from the Senior A Group and four teams from the Senior B Group progress to the knockout stage. The competition format is explained further in each of the championship rounds in the sections below.
Group stage
Senior A Senior A consists of 12 teams divided into three groups of 4 teams. The top teams from each group plus one drawn second team qualify for the quarter-finals. The remaining 2 second placed teams play in the preliminary quarter finals. The bottom team from each group will be relegated to playing in the following year's Senior B Section.
Senior A - Group 1 {| class="wikitable" !width=20| ! style="width:150px; text-align:left;"|Team !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=50| !width=50| !width=20| !width=20| |- style="background:#98FB98;" |1||align=left| Cappataggle ||3||2||0||1||5-43||3-42||7||4 |- style="background:#98FB98;" |2||align=left| Loughrea ||3||2||0||1||4-47||4-42||5||4 |- |3||align=left| Tommy Larkin's ||3||2||0||1||2-39||0-40||5||4 |- style="background:#FFBBBB;" |4||align=left| Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry ||3||0||0||2||4-38||8-43||-17||0 |} Loughrea were drawn from the second placed teams to go straight into the quarter-finals
Senior A - Group 2 {| class="wikitable" !width=20| ! style="width:150px; text-align:left;"|Team !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=40| !width=35| !width=20| !width=20| |- style="background:#98FB98;" |1|| style="text-align:left;"| Turloughmore ||3||2||0||0||2-54||1-49||8||4 |- style="background:#ccf;" |2|| style="text-align:left;"| Liam Mellows ||3||2||0||1||5-44||1-47||9||4
|3|| style="text-align:left;"| Oranmore-Maree ||3||1||0||2||1-45||3-53||-14||2 |- style="background:#FFBBBB;" |4|| style="text-align:left;"| Clarinbridge ||3||1||0||2||0-55||3-49||-3||2
Senior A - Group 3 {| class="wikitable" !width=20| ! style="width:150px; text-align:left;"|Team !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=40| !width=35| !width=20| !width=20| |- style="background:#98FB98;" |1|| style="text-align:left;"| St. Thomas' ||3||3||0||0||6-83||4-51||38||6 |- style="background:#ccf;" |2|| style="text-align:left;"| Sarsfields ||3||1||0||1||8-51||0-59||16||4 |- |3|| style="text-align:left;"| Castlegar ||3||1||0||1||7-58||6-52||9||2 |- style="background:#FFBBBB;" |4|| style="text-align:left;"| Portumna ||3||0||0||2||1-51||12-81||-63||0
Senior B Senior B consists of 12 teams divided into three groups of 4. The top two teams in each group qualify for the 2020 preliminary quarter finals and compete in the following year's Senior A competition. The bottom placed teams in each group enter the relegation playoffs.
Senior B - Group 1
{| class="wikitable" !width=20| ! style="width:150px; text-align:left;"|Team !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=40| !width=45| !width=20| !width=20| |- style="background:#ccf;" |1|| style="text-align:left;"| Craughwell ||3||2||1||0||7-63||7-38||25||5 |- style="background:#ccf;" |2|| style="text-align:left;"| Gort ||3||2||1||0||4-55||0-42||25||5 |- |3|| style="text-align:left;"| Ballinderreen ||3||1||0||2||6-37||6-56||-19||2 |- style="background:#FFBBBB;" |4|| style="text-align:left;"| Kinvara ||3||0||0||3||4-39||8-58||-31||0 |} Craughwell top the group on "Scores for"
Senior B - Group 2
{| class="wikitable" !width=20| ! style="width:150px; text-align:left;"|Team !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=30| !width=40| !width=20| !width=20| |- style="background:#ccf;" |1||align=left| Killimordaly ||3||2||0||1||5-51||2-46||14||4 |- style="background:#ccf;" |2||align=left| Ardrahan ||3||2||0||1||5-34||1-44||2||4 |- |3||align=left| Athenry ||3||1||1||1||1-57||5-47||-2||3 |- style="background:#FFBBBB;" |4||align=left| Beagh ||3||0||1||2||0-42||3-47||-14||1
Senior B - Group 3
{| class="wikitable" !width=20| ! style="width:150px; text-align:left;"|Team !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=30| !width=40| !width=20| !width=20| |- style="background:#ccf;" |1||align=left| Ahascragh-Fohenagh ||3||3||0||0||6-54||3-51||12||6 |- style="background:#ccf;" |2||align=left| Mullagh ||3||2||0||1||3-54||4-44||7||4 |- |3||align=left| Padraig Pearses ||3||1||0||2||4-40||2-52||-6||2 |- style="background:#FFBBBB;" |4||align=left| Kilnadeema-Leitrim ||3||0||0||3||2-52||6-53||-13||0
Senior Relegation {| class="wikitable" !width=20| ! style="width:150px; text-align:left;"|Team !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=20| !width=50| !width=50| !width=20| !width=20| |- style="background:#98FB98;" |1||align=left| Beagh ||2||1||0||1||4-28||1-35||2||2 |- style="background:#FFBBBB;" |2||align=left| Kilnadeema-Leitrim ||2||1||0||1||1-36||2-31||2||2 |- style="background:#FFBBBB;" |3||align=left| Kinvara ||2||1||0||1||2-29||4-27||-4||2 |} Beagh top the group on "score for"
Senior Relegation Playoff
Senior Knockout stage
Senior Preliminary Quarter-finals
Senior Quarter-finals
The three teams who finished first in the Senior A groups and one of the second placed teams (drawn at random) will play the four winners of the senior preliminary quarter finals.
Senior Semi-finals
Senior final
St. Thomas':1 Gerald Kelly2 Cian Mahoney3 Fintan Burke7 Sean Skehill18 John Headd6 Shane Cooney4 David Sherry8 David Burke9 James Regan12 Evan Duggan11 Conor Cooney (c)10 Darragh Burke15 Eanna Burke13 Oisin Flannery14 Bernard BurkeSubstitutes Used:19 Brendan Farrell for Evan Duggan (51 mins)Manager: Kevin LallyTurloughmore:1 Mark Fahy2 Mikey Morris3 Ronan Burke17 Mark Murphy4 Daniel Loftus6 Jamie Holland7 Kevin Hussey5 Fergal Moore8 Daithi Burke (c)11 Conor Walsh9 Sean Loftus19 Matthew Keating13 Barry Callanan15 Gary Burke10 Sean LinnaneSubstitutes Used:23 Brion Connolly for Daithi Burke (30 mins)12 Barry McDonagh for Matthew Keating (45 mins)8 Daithi Burke for Barry Callanan (58 mins)14 Ronan Badger for Gary Burke (58 mins)Joint Managers: Joe Hession, Francis Forde
References