The 2018 All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship was the 88th staging of the All-Ireland minor

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

championship since its establishment by the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

in 1928. It is the primary inter-county hurling competition for boys aged between fifteen and seventeen. The championship began on 12 May 2018 and ended on 19 August 2018.

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

were the defending champions and successfully defended the title after a 0-21 to 0-14 win over

Kilkenny Kilkenny ( , meaning 'church of Cainnech of Aghaboe, Cainnech'). is a city in County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region and in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinst ...

in the final on 19 August. The 2018 championship saw the biggest change in format since the introduction of the "back-door system" for beaten provincial finalists in 1997.

Format changes

At the

GAA Gaa may refer to: * Gaa language, a language of Nigeria * gaa, the ISO 639 code for the Ga language of Ghana GAA may stand for: Compounds * Glacial (water-free), acetic acid * Acid alpha-glucosidase, also known as glucosidase, alpha; acid, an e ...

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

in February 2016, it was decided by vote that the age limit for the inter-county minor championship would be reduced from under-18 to under-17. The motion proposed that all minor players at inter-county level be aged between 15 and 17. The change became effective from 1 January 2018. At a Special Congress in September 2017, further changes were made to the format of the championship. Under the new format, the championship begins solely on a provincial basis in

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

and

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

. There will be no Ulster Championship as Ulster teams, as agreed by the

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

and Leinster Councils, will participate in the Leinster Championship. While it was expected that

would also join the Leinster Championship, they will remain as the sole

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

representatives. They will enter the All-Ireland quarter-finals in a round-robin series with the beaten Leinster and Munster finalists. This will ensure Galway of at least two championship games every season.

Leinster Minor Hurling Championship The Leinster GAA Hurling Minor Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the Electric Ireland Leinster GAA Hurling Minor Championship, is an annual inter-county hurling competition organised by the Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic ...

Tier 1

Tier one is the tier for the highest ranked teams, and operates essentially as a ranking round, as all four teams progress directly to the quarter finals.

Tier 1 Table

Tier 1 Rounds 1 to 3

Tier 2

Tier 2 represents the teams ranked 5 to 8 in the competition. The winner of this tier joins the four Tier 1 teams directly in the quarter final, while the remaining three teams progress to 'Preliminary Quarter-finals' to face the three Tier 3 teams.

Tier 2 Table

Tier 2 Rounds 1 to 3

Tier 3

tier 3 is for the teams ranked 9 to 11, and operates essentially as a ranking round, as all three teams progress to the 'Preliminary Quarter-finals'.

Tier 3 Table

Tier 3 Rounds 1 to 3

Leinster Preliminary Quarter-Finals

Six of the seven teams in Tiers 2 and 3 play off with the winner of Tier 2 receiving a bye. The three winning teams from the preliminary quarter-finals plus the Tier 2 winners advance to the quarter-finals.

Leinster Quarter-finals

Leinster Semi-finals

Leinster Final

Munster Minor Hurling Championship The Munster GAA Hurling Minor Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the Electric Ireland Munster GAA Hurling Minor Championship) is an annual Inter county, inter-county hurling competition organised by the Munster GAA, Munster Council of ...

Munster Table

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Munster Final

All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship The GAA Hurling All-Ireland Minor Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the Electric Ireland GAA Hurling All-Ireland Minor Championship) is an annual Inter county, inter-county hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Associ ...

Quarter-Final Group Stage

Quarter-Final Group Table

Quarter-Final Rounds 1 to 3

Semi-finals

Final

Statistics

Top scorers

;Overall ;In a single game

Awards

Team of the Year

References

{{All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship

Minor Minor may refer to: Common meanings * Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities. * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to an ...

All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship