2007 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final
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| Event | 2007 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship | ||||||
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| Date | 2 September 2007 | ||||||
| Venue | Croke Park, Dublin | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Eddie Brennan (Kilkenny) | ||||||
| Referee | Diarmuid Kirwan (Cork) | ||||||
| Attendance | 82,127 | ||||||
| Weather | Cloudy 16 °C (61 °F) |
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The 2007 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final was a hurling match held at Croke Park, Dublin on 2 September 2007. The match was the 120th All-Ireland hurling final and was contested by Kilkenny and Limerick, with Kilkenny winning 2–19 to 1–15. It was the first meeting of these two sides in the All-Ireland final since 1974 when Kilkenny were the winners. Kilkenny were aiming to capture a second All-Ireland title in succession while Limerick were hoping to capture a first title since 1973. The prize for the winning team was the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
Prior to the event, Kilkenny goalkeeper James McGarry's wife Vanessa died in a road accident.
This particular fixture has been infrequent in the history of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship due to the provincial structure of the championship from 1888 to 1996. Kilkenny have played Limerick a total of eight times in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. As of 2007 the scores were level with both Kilkenny and Limerick recording four victories over each other.
At the start of the year Limerick were given little chance of success by most of the pundits and commentators. The last time the team won a game in the provincial championship was 2001 and few gave them any chance against Tipperray, their opponents in the Munster semi-final. 26,000 people witnessed that game with Tipp looking the likely winners. A goal from substitute Pat Tobin brought Limerick level to 1–19 late on to send the game to a replay. Early in the second half of the replay it looked as if Tipperary were going to run out the easy winners when they led by ten points. Limerick fought back to level the game by the final whistle. A period of extra time was played, however, after 160-minutes of hurling the sides couldn't be separated. Result: Tipperary 2–12 – Limerick 1–24. Eight days later both sides met for the third time. Remarkably, after the seventy minutes had been played both sides were still level and another period of extra time had to be played. After a three-game saga watched by over 80,000 people Limerick claimed their first victory in the provincial championship in six years when they won by 0–22 to 2–13. The reward for this victory was a Munster final meeting with Waterford. It was their first appearance in the provincial decider since 2001 and the first Limerick-Waterford Munster final since 1934. The game saw Waterford's Dan Shanahan run riot and capture three goals as Limerick were well beaten by 3–17 to 1–14. In spite of this Limerick still qualified for the All-Ireland quarter-final where they were drawn to play their near-neighbours Clare. Limerick were the favourites going into the game in spite of having lost quarter-finals in 2001, 2005 and 2006. The favourites tag was well justified and they won more comfortably than the 1–23 to 1–16 score line suggests. This win set up a rematch with Waterford in the All-Ireland semi-final. Having lost the Munster final to them, Waterford were the red-hot favourites going into the game. In spite of their underdog status Limerick produced an incredible display of goalpoaching to defeat Waterford by 5–11 to 2–15 in a thrilling All-Ireland semi-final. It was heart-breaking for Waterford who had to suffer a fourth defeat at the penultimate stage of the championship inside nine years.
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