Kilkenny have defeated 10 different counties in the march to four-in-a-row. Their roll-call of victims along with the number of defeats inflicted is as follows:

4 Wexford
3 Galway
2 Cork
2 Offaly
2 Waterford
1 Clare
1 Dublin
1 Limerick
1 Tipperary
1 Westmeath

During 2006 to 2009 the Cats beat every strong hurling county in Munster and Leinster at least once. Galway failed three times.  Only two of the top 12 hurling counties avoided the Cats - Antrim & Laois.

Kilkenny played 18 matches to win the 4-in-a-row. Their smallest margin of victory was their 3 point win over Cork in the 2006 final. And of course their biggest was their 23 point destruction of Waterford in the 2008 final. They scored at least one goal in every match except the 2007 semi-final when Wexford held them to 0-23. They only failed once to score 20 points or more - that was in the 2006 final when they hit 1-16.

Waterford have the distinction of scoring the most against Kilkenny (3-15 in this year’s semi-final) and also conceding the most (3-30 in last year’s final).

Their average margin of victory in each of the four years was:

2006 7.6 points
2007 10.6 points
2008 17.25 points
2009 5 points

Impressive stats whatever way you look at them!