2017 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship

The 2017 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was the 130th staging of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1887. The championship began on 23 April 2017 and ended on 3 September 2017. The draw for the championship was held on 13 October 2016 and was broadcast live on RTÉ2.

Tipperary, the 2016 champions, were defeated by Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final. Meath fielded a team in the championship for the first time since 2004.

On 3 September 2017 Galway won the championship following a 0–26 to 2–17 defeat of Waterford in the All-Ireland final. This was their fifth All-Ireland title and their first in 29 championship seasons.

Format
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was a double-elimination tournament based on the Leinster and Munster provincial championships and the Christy Ring Cup. Fifteen teams took part.

The 2017 championship was the last to feature mostly knock-out Leinster and Munster championships. On 30 September 2017, the Special Congress held at Croke Park voted by 62% to restructure the Leinster and Munster championships as two provincial groups of five teams who compete on a round-robin basis.

Provincial championships
Connacht Senior Hurling Championship

This competition is no longer organised. Galway represents Connacht and participates in the Leinster Championship. The other Connacht teams can compete in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship (tier 1) by gaining promotion through the tiers of hurling – the Christy Ring Cup (tier 2), the Nicky Rackard Cup (tier 3) and the Lory Meagher Cup (tier 4).

Leinster Senior Hurling Championship

Nine counties compete - seven from Leinster plus Galway and Kerry. Last year's Leinster champions received a bye in the semi-final. The championship begins with a qualifier group involving the four weakest teams. The group winners and runners-up join four of the five strongest teams in the three Leinster quarter finals as the competition continues in a knock-out format. Two semi-finals and a final follow.

Last year's Leinster champions receive a bye into the semi-finals. The remaining six teams (four seeded teams plus the qualifier group winners and runners-up) play in three quarter-finals. An informal system of promotion or relegation operates in this round; if a team from the qualifier group wins their quarter-final, they will be seeded in next year's Leinster championship and the beaten seeded team will compete in next year's Leinster qualifier

In 2017 the bottom team in the Leinster qualifier group will be relegated to next year's Christy Ring Cup (2nd tier). Their place in next year's Leinster qualifier group will be taken by the winner of 2017's Christy Ring Cup.

Meath qualified for this year's Leinster Championship by winning the 2016 Christy Ring Cup.

Munster Senior Hurling Championship

Five of the six Munster counties compete. Kerry participates in The Leinster Hurling Championship (see above). The competition has a knock-out format. All of the beaten teams enter the All-Ireland qualifiers.

Ulster Senior Hurling Championship

Although this competition takes place, it is not part of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. Currently no Ulster teams qualify to play in this year's Leinster championship which means that winning the Christy Ring cup is their only route into this year's All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.

Qualifiers Format
A total of nine teams enter the qualifiers – five of the seven teams eliminated in Leinster before the final (three losing quarter-finalists and two losing semi-finalists), all three teams knocked-out in Munster before the final and the winners of 2017's Christy Ring Cup.

The fixtures are decided by draws which are detailed in the sections below. All qualifier matches are knock-out and eventually result in two teams who progress to the two All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Qualifiers Preliminary round
The GAA congress held in Feb 2017 voted to allow the winners of the 2017 Christy Ring cup to enter the 2017 qualifiers in a new preliminary round. The Christy Ring cup winners play the losers of one of the three Leinster quarter finals.

Qualifiers Round 1 Format
After the qualifiers preliminary round, the eight remaining qualifier teams play in four matches. A draw is made such that the three Munster teams are paired with three teams beaten in the Leinster championship. Teams who have already met in the Leinster championship cannot be drawn to meet again if such a pairing can be avoided. The draw was made on the morning of the 26 June.

Qualifiers Round 2 Format
The four winners of round 1 play in two matches. Teams who have already met in the Leinster or Munster championships cannot be drawn to meet again if such a pairing can be avoided.

All-Ireland Format
The beaten finalists in the Leinster and Munster championships play the two winning teams from round two of the qualifiers in the two All-Ireland quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, the Leinster and Munster champions play the winners of the two quarter finals. The final normally takes place on the first Sunday in September.

To Championship
Promoted from the Christy Ring Cup


 * Meath

From Championship
Relegated to the Christy Ring Cup


 * Carlow

Note: 2017 Christy Ring Cup winners (Carlow) entered All-Ireland qualifiers.

General information
Fifteen counties will compete in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship: nine teams in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, five teams in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship and one team in the Christy Ring Cup.

Matches
Leinster Quarter-finals

Leinster Semi-finals
Last year's Leinster champions receive a bye into the semi-finals. They are joined by the winners of the three quarter-finals.

Scoring events
Widest winning margin: 24 points Most goals in a match: 7 Most points in a match: 53 Most goals by one team in a match: 6 Highest aggregate score: 66 Lowest aggregate score: 37 Most goals scored by a losing team: 3
 * Colours of Waterford.svg Waterford 1-35 – 0-14 Colours of Offaly.svg Offaly (Qualifier Round 1)
 * Colours of Tipperary.svg Tipperary 6-26 – 1-19 Colours of Dublin.svg Dublin (Qualifier Round 2)
 * Colours of Cork.svg Cork 2-27 – 1-26 Colours of Tipperary.svg Tipperary (Munster quarter-final)
 * Colours of Tipperary.svg Tipperary 6-26 – 1-19 Colours of Dublin.svg Dublin (Qualifier Round 2)
 * Colours of Tipperary.svg Tipperary 6-26 – 1-19 Colours of Dublin.svg Dublin (Qualifier Round 2)
 * Colours of Kilkenny.svg Kilkenny 0-20 – 0-17 Colours of Limerick.svg Limerick (Qualifier Round 1)
 * Colours of Wexford.svg Wexford 1-20 – 3-11 Colours of Kilkenny.svg Kilkenny (Leinster semi-final)
 * Colours of Tipperary.svg Tipperary 0-28 – 3-16 Colours of Clare.svg Clare (All-Ireland quarter-final)

Miscellaneous

 * Galway won their first All-Ireland since 1988.
 * It was the first meeting of Galway and Waterford in an All-Ireland Hurling Final.
 * Wexford defeated Kilkenny in the Leinster Championship for the first time since 2004.
 * Waterford set a championship record by scoring 35 points against Offaly in their All-Ireland qualifier meeting.
 * First time championship meetings:
 * Tipperary v Westmeath (Qualifiers round 1)
 * Galway played Wexford in their first ever Leinster final meeting. The game set a new attendance record of 60,032 who saw Galway win their second Leinster senior championship.
 * Waterford defeated Kilkenny in the championship for the first time since 1959.
 * This was the first year Meath competed in the championship since 2004.
 * In the Munster final, Patrick Horgan scored 0–13 to overtake Christy Ring's total of 33–205 to become Cork's top scorer of all time.
 * The first final since 1996 not to involve one of the "Big Three" counties (Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary).
 * Galway defeated Waterford for the very first time in the senior hurling championship.
 * A peak audience of 1.1 million watched Galway beat Waterford in the hurling final on RTÉ, making it the most watched programme on RTÉ in 2017 at the time.
 * For the first time in championship history, no county from Leinster reached the All-Ireland semi-final stage, with the four spots going to Cork, Galway, Tipperary and Waterford. (Galway currently play in the Leinster Championship but are geographically in Connacht.)
 * Kilkenny were eliminated in the qualifiers for the first time.

Broadcast Rights
Matches will be broadcast live on television in Ireland on RTÉ and Sky Sports under a new five-year contract that was agreed in December 2016. In the United Kingdom, matches will be shown on Sky Sports and worldwide coverage will be provided on GAAGO. RTÉ Radio 1 will also have full radio rights to all championship games which were previously shared with Newstalk.

RTÉ coverage will be shown on RTÉ One on The Sunday Game Live presented by Michael Lyster in high definition. Des Cahill will present The Sunday Game highlights and analysis show on Sunday evening.

Live Hurling On TV
RTÉ, the national broadcaster in Ireland, will provide the majority of the live television coverage of the championship in the first year of a five-year deal running from 2017 until 2021. Sky Sports will also broadcast a number of matches and will have exclusive rights to some games.

Awards
The Sunday Game team of the year was picked on 3 September, which was the night of the final. The panel consisting of Brendan Cummins, Michael Duignan, Tomás Mulcahy, Jackie Tyrrell, Anthony Daly, Eddie Brennan and Cyril Farrell unanimously selected Galway's Gearóid McInerney as the Sunday game player of the year.
 * Sunday Game Team of the Year
 * Anthony Nash (Cork)
 * Adrian Tuohy (Galway)
 * Daithí Burke (Galway)
 * Noel Connors (Waterford)
 * Pádraic Mannion (Galway)
 * Gearóid McInerney (Galway)
 * Padraic Maher (Tipperary)
 * Jamie Barron (Waterford)
 * David Burke (Galway)
 * Kevin Moran (Waterford)
 * Joe Canning (Galway)
 * Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh (Waterford)
 * Conor Whelan (Galway)
 * Conor Cooney (Galway)
 * Patrick Horgan (Cork)

On 2 November, the 2017 PwC All-Stars winners were announced. On 3 November 2017 at the presentation of the All-Star awards, Joe Canning was named as the All Stars Hurler of the Year with Conor Whelan named the All Stars Young Hurler of the Year.
 * All Star Team of the Year
 * Stephen O’Keeffe (Waterford)
 * Padraic Mannion (Galway)
 * Daithí Burke (Galway)
 * Noel Connors (Waterford)
 * Padraic Maher (Tipperary)
 * Gearóid McInerney (Galway)
 * Mark Coleman (Cork)
 * Jamie Barron (Waterford)
 * David Burke (Galway)
 * Kevin Moran (Waterford)
 * Joe Canning (Galway)
 * Michael Walsh (Waterford)
 * Conor Whelan (Galway)
 * Conor Cooney (Galway)
 * Patrick Horgan (Cork)