2022 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final

The 2022 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final, the 135th final of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship and the culmination of the 2022 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, was played at Croke Park in Dublin on 17 July 2022. This was the earliest in the year that the final had ever taken place. Some past finals had taken place at dates earlier in the year, but these were finals rescheduled from the years in which they were originally supposed to occur.

The match was televised live on RTÉ One as part of ''The Sunday Game'', presented by Joanne Cantwell from the Croke Park studio with analysis by Anthony Daly, Dónal Óg Cusack and Liam Sheedy. Commentary on the game was provided by Marty Morrissey alongside Michael Duignan.
The match was also live on Sky Sports, with analysis from Jamesie O'Connor, Ollie Canning and J. J. Delaney.

Defending champions Limerick won the game by 1-31 to 2-26 to claim their fourth title in five years and their first ever three-in-a-row. The game was the joint highest scoring final in history, equalling the total of 66 points scored in the 2021 final between Limerick and Cork, and had the most scores (60) in a final surpassing the 58 scores of the 2021 final. Kilkenny's score of 2-26 was the highest total for a losing team in a final. There were 25 different scorers in the game, 10 for Limerick and 15 for Kilkenny.

Audience share for television coverage of the game in Ireland was 72%.

Background

*This was the first meeting of Kilkenny and Limerick in the final since 2007. They had met in nine previous finals, Kilkenny winning five (1911, 1933, 1935, 1974, 2007) and Limerick four (1897, 1936, 1940, 1973).
*Kilkenny had not won an All-Ireland since 2015; this final marked their seventh season in a row without a title, their worst streak since 1984–1991 (eight years in a row).

Paths to the final

Kilkenny

''Kilkenny finished second in the Leinster round-robin and so advanced to the Leinster Final.''

''As Leinster champions, Kilkenny advanced to the All-Ireland semi-final.''

Limerick

''Limerick finished second in the Munster round-robin and so advanced to the Munster Final.''

''As Munster champions, Limerick advanced to the All-Ireland semi-final.''

Pre-match

Officials

On 6 July, the GAA named Cork's Colm Lyons as the referee for the final; he was the first Cork referee in the final since Diarmuid Kirwan in 2009.

Pageantry

President Michael D. Higgins greeted the players along with the GAA President for the first time since the 2019 All-Ireland final due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the pre-match parade featuring the Artane Band made a return for a second year running. The Liam MacCarthy Cup was brought out onto the pitch by two Ukrainian children who had fled their country due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Build-up

The final was shown on a giant screen at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick where an all ticket crowd watched the match.

Jubilee teams

The Wexford team that won the 1996 All-Ireland Final along with the Clare teams that won the 1995 and 1997 All-Ireland Final's were presented to the crowd before the match. The first time teams were presented on the pitch since the 2019 All-Ireland Final.

Match

Summary

In dry and very warm conditions of due to a heat wave, Corey O'Neill opened the scoring in the first minute. In front of a crowd of over 80,000 for the first time since the 2019 All-Ireland final due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gearóid Hegarty got the opening goal of the game after four minutes with a strike to the left corner of the net from out on the right to make it 1-1 to no score.
Limerick were ahead by four points at half-time on a 1-17 to 0-16 scoreline. In the second half, goals from Billy Ryan with a low shot to the corner of the net and Martin Keoghan with a shot into the left corner form the right twice helped to briefly drag Kilkenny back on level terms, and every one of their subs scored – Richie Hogan hitting an equaliser in his first appearance of the season. In the end, Limerick won the game 1-31 to 2-26 to claim their fourth title in five years and their first ever three-in-a-row. Captain Declan Hannon lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup alongside the injured Cian Lynch, whose absence with an ankle injury made the achievement all the more impressive.

Details

Trophy presentation

Limerick captain Declan Hannon, alongside Cian Lynch (who did not play in the final due to an injury), accepted the Liam MacCarthy Cup from GAA president Larry McCarthy in the Hogan Stand. In doing so, Hannon became the first captain to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup four times.

Lynch later revealed that he was not anticipating Hannon asking him to lift the trophy with him.

Reaction

Limerick captain Declan Hannon speaking to RTÉ after the match said "It means everything to us".

Limerick manager John Kiely spoke to RTÉ after the match about how much it meant to make history with Limerick and how the panel almost governed itself in setting standards.

Kyle Hayes dedicated Limerick's third All-Ireland SHC title in a row to Cian Lynch, "the heart and soul of our team". Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Hayes said: "Anyone who knows Ciano personally, he's an absolute gentleman."

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody speaking to RTÉ after the match said "It was close for sure at the end. I think every Kilkenny person should be very, very proud of how the Kilkenny team performed."

Highlights of the final were shown on ''The Sunday Game'' programme which aired at 9:30pm that night on RTÉ2 and was presented by Des Cahill with match analysis from Jackie Tyrrell, Brendan Cummins, Donal Óg Cusack, Davy Fitzgerald, Shane Dowling and Ursula Jacob. On the man of the match award shortlist were Gearóid Hegarty, Kyle Hayes and Diarmaid Byrnes with Gearóid Hegarty winning the award which was presented by GAA president Larry McCarthy at the post match Limerick function at the Clayton Burlington Hotel in Dublin.

Celebrations

The Limerick team returned home the day after the final where the homecoming event was held at Gaelic Grounds, with the team arriving around 7pm. Shortly after 5pm, an estimated 40,000 people turned out to see the team and fans lined a route on an open-top bus from Colbert Rail Station where the team arrived through Mallow Street, O'Connell Street, Sarsfield Bridge and out to the Ennis Road to the Gaelic Grounds which was packed by 45,000.
Entertainment and a concert celebration commenced at 5pm at the Gaelic Grounds in which Denise Chaila, along with MuRli and God Knows, performing together as Narolane, led a stellar line-up of music acts including Emma Langford and Moncrieff.

Limerick manager Kiely revealed that Kyle Hayes and David Reidy were fitness doubts until one hour before the game. Aaron Gillane later revealed that rumours circulating about his fitness were partially true after injuring his knee while clearing a soccer ball out of the way of a frisbee.

Matchday programme controversy

The GAA issued an apology after forgetting to include Clare in the matchday programme's " roll of honour section".

References

{{GAA 2022

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final
All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final, 2022
All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Finals
All-Ireland Senior Hurling