Tipp Legend Makes All-Ireland Comparison To Sum Up Farcical Joe McDonagh Cup Situation

Kildare capped off what has been arguably the most inspiring story of the 2025 GAA season over the weekend, with the county winning their first ever Joe McDonagh Cup after their final victory over Laois at Croke Park.

This is the second successive promotion achieved by the Lilywhites, having also won the Christy Ring Cup in 2024.

Prior to this season, Kildare had lost in all ten of the previous games in which they had featured at Joe McDonagh Cup level. That run would extend to 11 after losing this season's opener to Kerry.

However, Brian Dowling's side would go on to win each of the matches that followed in order to secure their place in the Liam MacCarthy for 2025.

Of course, Kildare's season is not over. They will now face Dublin in an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final this weekend, despite the celebrations being in full flow in the aftermath of Sunday's victory.

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The two Joe McDonagh Cup finalists taking part in a preliminary quarter-final has been a major talking point in recent years, with most such fixtures resulting in heavy defeats for sides from the second tier competition.

Kildare will be hoping to reverse that trend this weekend, while Laois will be aiming for a similar outcome against Tipperary. The short turnaround between the final these games makes that an incredibly difficult prospect, with some questioning the fairness of the scheduling.

Speaking on the RTÉ GAA Podcast, former Tipperary star Shane McGrath gave an interesting All-Ireland final comparison that summed up the farcical nature of the situation.

If you were to flip that around to Liam MacCarthy. Imagine the All-Ireland hurling final on the third week of July. Imagine after that match, you say to everyone, 'by the way, you won this, but to play in this competition you have to play next Saturday’.

They would be like 'well, I'm not going to be home until Thursday, so best of luck getting me right for that match'. That's what it is like...

Are we nearly punishing them for winning the thing by making them play a match seven days later?

Kildare are rightly enjoying the celebrations after their Joe McDonagh Cup triumph at the moment, meaning they will hardly have the ideal preparation for this weekend's game.

While the GAA inter-county calendar is incredibly condensed at the moment, there has to be a better solution found for this particular issue moving forward.