Peter Queally would like to see hurling adopt a similar championship format to football to ensure a longer playing season.

Queally called for a change to the structure after Waterford’s Munster SHC defeat to Cork last Sunday resulted in another early championship exit. It was a familiar story for the Deise who have failed to qualify for the All-Ireland series since the Munster round-robin series was introduced six seasons ago.

“We’ve been training all winter. Now the ground is hard, we want to be hurling and we’re out of the championship,” the Waterford manager lamented.

“I’d like to see a change in structure where we’re afforded a little bit of a chance to hurl during the summer when everyone wants to hurl and everyone wants to watch hurling, not in December, January and February.

“I’ve had conversations with fellas who decided to opt out because of, ‘Well, I can give all this and I might not be able to hurl in the summer’. People are deciding not to play because of the amount of effort and training that’s asked of them in the winter months.

"Then you come up against three awesome hurling teams and you’re putting away your hurley in the summer evenings when all you want to do is hurl.”

He added: “Clare are the All-Ireland champions and they were out of this championship because of the results last week. I’m disappointed. We had our hearts set on coming out of Munster this year and hurling for the summer.”

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