All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship

The Guinness All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship is the premier knockout competition in the game of hurling played in Ireland. The series of games are organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association and are played during the summer months with the All-Ireland Hurling Final being played on the second (formerly first) Sunday in September in Croke Park.

Format

The county is a geographical region in Ireland, and each of the thirty-two counties in Ireland organises its own GAA affairs through a County Board. The county teams play in their respective Provincial Championships in Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Ulster If successful the county team will go on the play in the All-Ireland series. A current experiment in hurling allows the defeated senior hurling finalists in Leinster and Munster to re-enter the championship at the All-Ireland Quarter-Final stages. The hurling championship qualifying structure works as follows:

Galway, having no opposition in Connacht, go straight into an eight-team qualifying/losers group that will run in tandem with the normal provincial championships. Galway will be joined there by the defeated Ulster finalists, and the three teams from both Munster and Leinster who have lost at either the first round or semi-final stage in their provincial competition. The pairings will be decided by open draw. Should Galway lose their first open draw game, they will then be drawn against one of the three winners (the team that beats Galway, should the scenario arise, will be excluded from this draw) from the first round of the losers group. This is the manner in which Galway is guaranteed at least two games in the championship. It means that should Galway fall at the first hurdle, the draw will put one of the winners in the opening qualifying round back to square one even if they win.

The four teams who win and emerge from this initial qualifiers group will then join the defeated provincial finalists from Munster and Leinster, to form a six team group. There will then be a further open draw, with the three winners, along with the Ulster champions, contesting two All-Ireland quarter-finals. The two winners will then go forward to play the Munster and Leinster champions in the All-Ireland semi-finals. The winners of these two semi-finals will then go on to play each other in the All-Ireland Hurling Final.

Past Winners

Top Winners

The top 10 county teams by number of wins (and when they last won and lost a final):

Hurling Team of the Millennium

See also

• All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
• Croke Park
• Gaelic Athletic Association