Event | 2005 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship | ||||||
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Date | 11 September 2005 | ||||||
Venue | Croke Park, Dublin | ||||||
Man of the Match | Ben O'Connor (Cork) | ||||||
Referee | Séamus Roche (Tipperary) | ||||||
Attendance | 82,275 | ||||||
Weather | Dry with sunny spells | ||||||
The 2005 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final was a hurling match that took place on Sunday, 11 September 2005. The match was played at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, to determine the winner of the 2005 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. The final was contested by Cork and Galway, with Cork winning on a score line of 1-21 to 1-16. It was their second consecutive All-Ireland title.
This was the 29th championship meeting between Cork and Galway in over one hundred years of competitive games. Cork had won the previous twenty-four encounters while Galway had only put Cork to the sword four times. Furthermore, Cork had a 100% record over Galway in All-Ireland finals. Their last meeting at this stage of the championship was in 1990, when Cork staged a great comeback to take the title. Galway's four victories over Cork, on the other hand, came in games when Cork were expected to win easily. The All-Ireland semi-finals of 1975, 1979 and 1985 saw Galway catch Cork on the hop, while their most recent victory over 'the Rebels' came in an All-Ireland qualifier in 2002. The game was shown live in Ireland on RTÉ Two as part of the Sunday game live with match commentary provided by Ger Canning and analysis by Michael Duignan.
Cork, as reigning All-Ireland champions, began the game in confident mood. Their defence stood up to the Galway attack with Ronan Curran producing his best game of the year.
It was 0-4 to 0-1 after just ten minutes, during which time Brian Corcoran looked threatening in full-forward line. All of the Cork players settled much better than their Galway counterparts, with Timmy McCarthy, Tom Kenny and Jerry O'Connor all winning the most of the possession in the centre of the field.