 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 (effectively, Kerry), 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.