2022 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship

The 2022 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was the 135th staging of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, the Gaelic Athletic Association's premier inter-county hurling tournament, since its establishment in 1887. The provincial fixtures were released on 27 November 2021. The championship began on 16 April 2022 and ended on 17 July 2022.

Limerick entered the championship as defending champions having won the previous two championships.

Westmeath, having won the 2021 Joe McDonagh Cup, returned to the Leinster Championship for the first time since the 2017 competition.

The All-Ireland final was played on 17 July 2022 at Croke Park in Dublin, between Limerick and Kilkenny. 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.

Limerick captain Declan Hannon became the first captain to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup four times.

Leinster Championship
Participating counties (6): Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Westmeath, Wexford

Group stage (15 matches): Each team plays each other once. The 1st and 2nd placed teams advance to the Leinster final and the 3rd placed team advances to the all-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals. All other teams are eliminated from the championship and the bottom placed team may face relegation to next years Joe McDonagh Cup.

Final (1 match): The top 2 teams in the group stage contest this game. The Leinster champions advance to the All-Ireland semi-finals and the Leinster runners-up advance to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Munster Championship
Participating counties (5): Clare, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford

Group stage (10 matches): Each team plays each other once. The 1st and 2nd placed teams advance to the Munster final and the 3rd placed team advances to the all-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals. All other teams are eliminated from the championship and the bottom placed team may face relegation to next years Joe McDonagh Cup.

Final (1 match): The top 2 teams in the group stage contest this game. The Munster champions advance to the All-Ireland semi-finals and the Munster runners-up advance to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Joe McDonagh Cup
Participating counties (6): Antrim, Carlow, Down, Kerry, Meath, Offaly

Group stage (15 matches): Each team plays each other once. The 1st and 2nd placed teams advance to the Joe McDonagh Cup final. All other teams are eliminated from the championship and the bottom placed team are relegated to next years Christy Ring Cup.

Final (1 match): The top 2 teams in the group stage contest this game. The Joe McDonagh Cup champions and runners-up advance to the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals.

All-Ireland Championship
Preliminary quarter-finals (2 matches): The 3rd placed teams from the Leinster and Munster championships play the Joe McDonagh Cup champions and runners-up. Two teams are eliminated at this stage while the winners advance to the quarter-finals.

Quarter-finals (2 matches): The winners of the preliminary quarter-finals join the Leinster and Munster runners-up to make up the quarter-final pairings. Teams who may have already met in the provincial championships are kept apart in separate quarter-finals. Two teams are eliminated at this stage while the winners advance to the semi-finals.

Semi-finals (2 matches): The winners of the quarter-finals join the Leinster and Munster champions to make up the semi-final pairings. Teams who may have already met in the provincial championships are kept apart in separate semi-finals where possible. Two teams are eliminated at this stage while the winners advance to the final.

Final (1 match): The two winners of the semi-finals contest this game.

To Championship
Promoted from the Christy Ring Cup
 * Offaly

Included in the Championship


 * Carlow
 * Down
 * Kerry
 * Meath
 * Westmeath

General information
Seventeen counties will compete in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship: six teams in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, five teams in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship and six teams in the Joe McDonagh Cup.

Group Stage
Antrim beat Kerry in the 2022 Joe McDonagh Cup final and were promoted to the 2023 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship. Laois were relegated to the 2023 Joe McDonagh Cup as they finished last in the 2022 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship.

Top scorers

 * Top scorer overall


 * In a single game

Miscellaneous

 * Cork's Patrick Horgan surpassed Joe Canning to become the championship's all-time top scorer.
 * Cork's seventeenth year in a row without an All-Ireland senior title, their longest dry spell since the founding of the championship.
 * It was the first championship meeting between Cork and Antrim since 2010.
 * It was the first championship meeting between Wexford and Kerry since the 1891 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final.
 * This was the first year Down competed in the championship since 2004.
 * It was the first All-Ireland final between Kilkenny and Limerick since 2007.
 * It was the first Munster final between Clare and Limerick since 1995.
 * It was the first Leinster final between Galway and Kilkenny since 2020.
 * It was the first Joe McDonagh Cup final between Antrim and Kerry since 2020.
 * This was Kilkenny's seventh season in a row without a title, their worst streak since 1984–1991 (which was eight years in a row). The last time Kilkenny lost three All Ireland finals per appearance was in 1940, 1945 and 1946 to Limerick, Tipperary and Cork respectively.
 * Limerick join an elite group of hurling teams to have won 3 All Ireland's in a row. Kilkenny achieved this feat in 2008, previous to that Cork won it in 1978 and Tipperary last completed it in 1951.

Live televised games
RTÉ, the national broadcaster in Ireland, provided the majority of the live television coverage of the hurling championship with 17 games shown. Sky Sports also broadcast a number of matches and had exclusive rights to some games.

Awards
The Sunday Game team of the year was picked 17 July on the night of the final. The panel consisting of Jackie Tyrrell, Brendan Cummins, Donal Óg Cusack, Davy Fitzgerald, Shane Dowling, and Ursula Jacob chose Diarmaid Byrnes as the Sunday game player of the year from a list that also contained TJ Reid and Barry Nash.
 * Sunday Game Team of the Year


 * 1. Nickie Quaid (Limerick)
 * 2. Sean Finn (Limerick)
 * 3. Huw Lawlor (Kilkenny)
 * 4. Barry Nash (Limerick)
 * 5. Diarmuid Byrnes (Limerick)
 * 6. Declan Hannon (Limerick)
 * 7. Pádraic Mannion (Galway)
 * 8. Adrian Mullen (Kilkenny)
 * 9. David Fitzgerald (Clare)
 * 10. Gearoid Hegarty (Limerick)
 * 11. Kyle Hayes (Limerick)
 * 12. Shane O'Donnell (Clare)
 * 13. Aaron Gillane (Limerick)
 * 14. TJ Reid (Kilkenny)
 * 15. Tony Kelly (Clare)

On 28 October, the All-Star winners were presented at a black-tie ceremony at the Convention Centre in Dublin. Diarmaid Byrnes was named as the All Stars Hurler of the Year with Mikey Butler named the All Stars Young Hurler of the Year.
 * All Star Team of the Year