A little over three weeks for hurlers to get ready

Last night it was the Meath footballers and tonight it was the Royal County hurlers who returned to training at the Dunganny GAA Centre of Excellence.

There will be lots of intensity to the training between now and the opening round of the NHL Div 2A on Saturday 8th May. The final round will be played on Sunday 13th June - five games in six weeks.

Manager Nick Weir will be aiming to find some improvement on 2020 in both the NHL and the Joe McDonagh Cup

Meath will face Kerry, Carlow, Offaly, Wicklow and Down in the NHL Div 2A so no easy games there.

NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE

NHL Div 1 and Div 2 will run from Saturday 8th May to Sunday 13th June while Div 3 will be played from Saturday 15th May to Sunday 20th June.

There will be no Div 1 quarter-finals, semi-finals or final.

There will either be joint- winners for 2021, or if the teams that win Div 1A and Div 1B meet in the championship, this will double as a league final.

The Div 1 relegation play-off will be played as curtainraiser to a senior hurling semi-final in August.

NHL Div 2 and NHL Div 3 will not have finals.

The top team in each grade will be crowned champions.

The bottom team in Div 2A, 2B and 3A will be relegated.

British based teams will not be involved and London and Warwickshire will start 2022 in Divisions 2B and 3A respectively with Lancashire in 3B.

JOE MCDONAGH CUP

The six competing teams - Kerry, Westmeath, Meath, Carlow, Kildare, Down - will be split into two three-team groups with each team playing one home and one away game.

The top team in each group will advance to the final which will be played on Saturday 17th July - the same day as the Leinster SHC final - and broadcast live on TV.

The winner of the Joe McDonagh Cup will be promoted in 2021, but will not have a back door into the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

If Kerry win the 2021 Joe McDonagh Cup they will play in Leinster in 2022 and replace the team relegated from the Leinster Championship this year.