2020 Joe McDonagh Cup
The 2020 Joe McDonagh Cup is due to be the third staging of the Joe McDonagh Cup since its establishment by the Gaelic Athletic Association in 2018. The competition had been scheduled to begin on 10 May 2020 and end on 29 June 2020.
Laois, the 2019 champions, were promoted to the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, while Offaly were relegated to the Christy Ring Cup. Meath and Carlow entered the competition in 2020.
Teams and venues
As in 2019, five teams are due to compete in the 2020 Joe McDonagh Cup.| Team | Colours | Location | Stadium | Capacity | Sponsor | Captain | Manager |
| Antrim | Ballycastle | Páirc Mac Uílín | Creagh Concrete | Conor McCann | Neal Peden | ||
| Carlow | Carlow | Netwatch Cullen Park | IT Carlow | Diarmuid Byrne Richard Coady | Colm Bonnar | ||
| Kerry | Tralee | Austin Stack Park | Kerry Group | Martin Stackpoole | Fintan O'Connor | ||
| Meath | Navan | Páirc Tailteann | Glenveagh Properties | Seán Geraghty | Nick Weir | ||
| Westmeath | Mullingar | Cusack Park | Renault | Aonghus Clarke | Joe Quaid |
Competition Format
Joe McDonagh Cup properInitially each of the five teams play the other four teams in a round of single round-robin matches. The top two teams qualify for the Joe McDonagh Cup final, held at Croke Park.
All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship
The top two teams after the round robin games, in addition to qualification for the Cup final, also enter the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship proper. There they play the third-placed teams in the Leinster and Munster championships in the two All-Ireland preliminary quarter finals with the Joe McDonagh Cup teams having home advantage.
Promotion to Leinster or Munster SHC
The winner of the Joe McDonagh Cup can also be promoted to the following year's Leinster or Munster Senior Hurling championships, which form the first round of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship proper. How this is achieved depends on the province to which the Cup champions belong.
If the Joe McDonagh champions are a non-Munster team, they are automatically promoted to the following year's Leinster Championship and the bottom-placed team in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship are automatically relegated to the following year's Joe McDonagh Cup. If the champions are a Munster team, they must win a play-off with the bottom-placed team in the Munster Championship to gain promotion at that teams expense to the following year's Munster Championship.
Relegation
The bottom-placed team in the Joe McDonagh Cup are usually relegated to the following year's Christy Ring Cup, and replaced by the 2020 Christy Ring Cup Champions. Although, due to a restructure to the Championship Tiers there will be no relegation this year. The 2020 Christy Ring Cup Finalists will be promoted to increase the 2021 Joe McDonagh Cup to six teams.
Group Stage
Table
| Team | |||||||||
| 1 | Antrim | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 | 0 |
| 2 | Carlow | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 | 0 |
| 3 | Kerry | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 | 0 |
| 4 | Meath | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 | 0 |
| 5 | Westmeath | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0 | 0 |
Round 1
Round 2
Westmeath v KerryCarlow v Antrim
Meath
Round 3A
Carlow v MeathAntrim, Kerry, Westmeath
Round 3B
Antrim v KerryCarlow, Meath, Westmeath
Round 4
Kerry v CarlowMeath v Westmeath
Antrim
Round 5
Westmeath v CarlowMeath v Antrim
Kerry