decision, the championship took nearly 11 months to complete. On Sunday 2 June 1929, the very first Munster final took place. Cork won their first title after a 3-04 to 3-02 defeat of Waterford. Since then the championship title has been awarded every year except for a three-year period during the Emergency. Team changes Due to a lack of competition in the various Connacht Championships, a proposal by the Galway County Board led to a wider debate regarding hurling. At a meeting of the Munster Council on 10 January 1959 it was decided to invite Galway to participate in all grades of hurling in Munster on a temporary basis. This decision was later ratified at the GAA Congress. Galway played in the Munster Championship from 1959 until 1969 and reached the 1966 final where they lost to Cork. Format Between 1928 and 2002 the Munster Championship was a knockout tournament whereby once a team was defeated they were eliminated from the championship. In the early years the pairings were drawn at random and there was no seeding. Each match was played as a single leg. If a match ended in a draw there was a replay. Drawn replays were settled with extra time; however, if both sides were still level at the end of extra time a second replay took place and so on until a winner was found. Extra-time was eventually adopted in the event of a draw for all championship games except the final. In 2003 a play-off format was adopted which gave the defeated first-round teams a second chance to progress to the semi-finals. The Munster Championship was an integral part of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. Between 1928 and 1996 the Munster final winners automatically qualified for either the All-Ireland semi-final or final. The introduction of the "back door" system in 1997 allowed the defeated Munster finalists access to the All-Ireland quarter-final, while the Munster champions received a bye to the All-Ireland semi-final. Current format Championship There are five teams in the Munster Championship. During the course of a season (from May to June) each team plays the others once (a single round-robin system) for a total of 10 games. Teams receive two points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points and then head-to-head results. The top two teams in the