Since the Leinster council was forced, for the sake of greater coherence in the championship structure, to stop discriminating against counties not from Leinster in their provincial championship, Antrim, Galway and now Kerry have joined the hunt for the Bob O'Keeffe Cup.
Kerry will make their debut in 2016, joining in the early series of round robin games against Carlow, Westmeath and Offaly. As Martin Breheny writes in the Independent today, Carlow and Westmeath will both have to travel down to Kerry to face the newcomers.
Last year, Antrim downed eventual round robin champs Laois in Ballycastle. They enjoyed regular home games since their entry into the province in 2009.
Only Galway have been denied the chance of a home game.
The Leinster counties have decided that their generosity will only extend as far as allowing Galway into the province and no further. Despite repeated pleas from the west, they are simply refusing to enter into a home and away arrangement with Galway.
As such, Tullamore has effectively become their surrogate home ground.
The situation was highlighted after Galway's draw with Dublin in the Leinster first round this year. Having faced off in the Croke Park 'curtain raiser' the first day, many Galway supporters wondered aloud why the replay wasn't arranged for Salthill.
Anthony Cunningham expressed his frustration.
Look, I’m not going to make a massive issue of it but we do need to have a home and away situation in Leinster. I suppose we need to be embraced properly into Leinster.
Galway need Championship hurling in Galway. It’s something for the future but it’s something I thought might have happened by now.
The Galway county board continue to bellyache about unfair treatment from the Leinster Council, both on the grounds of financial treatment and their continued exclusion from underage competition in the province.
In the past quarter of a century (and probably longer) Galway have played a total of two championship games in their own county.
Not even during the golden era of the Connacht hurling championship were Galway granted a home game. Between 1995 and 1999, Galway faced Roscommon in a fixture which was somewhat grandly titled 'The Connacht Final'.
The games were never staged any further west than Athleague. Indeed, it was there in 1997 that Joe Rabbitte was almost decapitated by the Roscommon full back. The Rossies went down on that occasion on a scoreline of 6-24 to 0-5.
Incidentally, the two home games were the 2003 one-point qualifier loss to Tipperary and a 2011 hammering of Ger O'Loughlin's Clare.
