2012 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship final
Football match
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The 2012 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship final, the deciding game of the 2012 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, was a hurling match played on 8 July 2012 at Croke Park, Dublin. Contested by Galway and Kilkenny, most experts gave the former little chance against the latter.
| Event | 2012 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship | ||||||
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| Date | 8 July 2012 | ||||||
| Venue | Croke Park, Dublin | ||||||
| Referee | J. McGrath (Westmeath) | ||||||
| Attendance | 22,171[1] | ||||||
| Weather | Dry | ||||||
Pre-match
Match summary
Galway secured a historic first ever Leinster title, after unexpectedly defeating the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Champions, Kilkenny.[4] In doing so they held Kilkenny scoreless for the first twenty minutes, had 1-6 to 0-0 lead after 18 minutes, and led at half-time by 2-12 to 0-4, the full-time score of was 2-21 to 2-11.[5] The result sent the Bob O'Keeffe Cup across the Shannon for the first time in the GAA's 128-year history.[6]
     Galway
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   Kilkenny
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Post-match
Kilkenny manager Brian Cody said afterwards that his team were "wiped out" by Galway.[7] The Irish Examiner reported on "a historic day in Croke Park [...] a day that may also go down in history for another reason, however, the day an empire began to crumble".[8] Martin Breheny, writing in the Irish Independent, called it "one of the most remarkable shut-outs of modern-day hurling" and reported that Galway had moved to the top of the selection of teams to have beaten the Cats "after subjecting Kilkenny to a systematic beating which nobody thought remotely possible".[2]
The teams would meet again in the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final to decide the destination of the Liam MacCarthy Cup, with Kilkenny winning that game after a replay.