The 2023 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final, the 136th final of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship and the culmination of the 2023 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, was played at Croke Park in Dublin on 23 July 2023.
The match was televised live on RTÉ2 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.
Defending champions Limerick won the game by 0-30 to 2-15 to claim their four-in-a-row and their fifth title in six years.
The match drew a peak audience of more than 1 million on RTÉ. The TV audience for The Sunday Game coverage peaked at 1,125,000 by the end of the final, the highest since 2019.
Background
Limerick were aiming to complete a four-in-a-row, having won the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championships of 2020, 2021 and 2022. This had only been done twice before in the championship's history, by Cork in 1941–44 and Kilkenny in 2006–09. Kilkenny were aiming to win their first All-Ireland since 2015. This was to be the tenth Kilkenny–Limerick final; Limerick had won five of these (1897, 1936, 1940, 1973, 2022) and Kilkenny four (1933, 1935, 1974, 2007).
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 13 July, the GAA named Wicklow's John Keenan as the referee for the final, his first All-Ireland final. He previously refereed the 2016 All-Ireland minor final, the 2018 All-Ireland Under-21 final, the 2019 Leinster hurling final and the 2022 Munster hurling final. His umpires were Tommy Redmond (Tinahely), Eddie Leonard (St Patrick’s), Paul Reville (Turin) and David Clune (Delvin). His linemen were Galway's Liam Gordon and Wexford's James Owens, with Gordon also the standby referee. The sideline official was Shane Hynes from Galway.
Build-up
Both teams confirmed that they would return home to their respective counties straight after the match and not remain in Dublin overnight. Limerick would return to Fitzgerald's Woodlands House Hotel and Spa in Adare while Kilkenny would go to the River Court Hotel in Kilkenny.
The final was shown on a big screen on Pery Square in Limerick where an all ticket crowd watched the match.
Jubilee teams
The Offaly team that won the 1998 All-Ireland Final was presented to the crowd before the match.
Match
Summary
Paddy Deegan opened the scoring for Kilkenny in the opening minute of the game, a lead which was held for a further five minutes before Limerick could equalise through Cian Lynch, this would be the be the only time the sides were level until deep into the second half. Limerick would for a brief moment, take the lead of the game when Diarmaid Byrnes knocked over Limerick's second point of the afternoon. However, Limerick's bright start was negated when, in the 10th minute, Eoin Cody picked up a loose ball in the Limerick box, and tucked it low into the bottom-right of the Limerick net, giving Kilkenny a two point advantage. By the 14th minute, two of Limerick's half-back line, William O'Donoghue and Diarmaid Byrnes received yellow cards for foul play. Kilkenny would go on to dominate much of the first half proceedings, leading by as much as six points by the 27th minute. At the end of the first half, Kilkenny led by three points on a 1-09 to 0-09 scoreline.