So Kilkenny have won 5 of the last 6 All-Irelands. But which players have contributed to this superb record of success?
The list below shows each player who played in one or more of the 26 matches played by the Cats since 2006. The list is sorted by the number of minutes played.
So what are the highlights? Here are mine:
- Only 1 player has started every match - Henry Shefflin
- Only 2 players have appeared in every match - Eoin Larkin and Henry Shefflin
- Jackie Tyrell has played most hurling - 1739 minutes of a possible 1820 (26 x 70 mins)
- 9 players have appeared in more than 20 matches - Shefflin, Larkin, Tyrrell, Tommy Walsh, JJ Delaney, Eddie Brennan, Martin Comerford, Richie Power and Michael Rice
- Cody has used 37 players in total since 2006 - that’s not a lot!
- 10 of those players have played for less than 170 minutes - that’s about 2.5 matches.
- John Mulhall has appeared in 7 matches but only clocked up 58 on-field minutes
- Finally Matthew Ruth has appeared least - playing for only 1 minute of the possible 1820.
Here is the full list - some of the greatest hurlers ever to play the game:
1739 minutes Jackie Tyrrell (25 matches)
1725 minutes Tommy Walsh (25 matches)
1707 minutes Eoin Larkin (26 matches)
1684 minutes Henry Shefflin (26 matches)
1663 minutes JJ Delaney (25 matches)
1428 minutes Eddie Brennan (24 matches)
1257 minutes Martin Comerford (22 matches)
1245 minutes Noel Hickey (19 matches)
1193 minutes Richie Power (21 matches)
1181 minutes Brian Hogan (19 matches)
1181 minutes PJ Ryan (17 matches)
1169 minutes James Fitzpatrick (19 matches)
1099 minutes Michael Kavanagh (17 matches)
1024 minutes Michael Rice (21 matches)
967 minutes Derek Lyng (19 matches)
936 minutes Aidan Fogarty (19 matches)
876 minutes Michael Fennelly (17 matches)
775 minutes John Tennyson (15 matches)
592 minutes John Dalton (10 matches)
525 minutes TJ Reid (15 matches)
509 minutes Richie Hogan (11 matches)
444 minutes Willie O’Dwyer (12 matches)
359 minutes James McGarry (6 matches)
318 minutes James Ryall (7 matches)
280 minutes David Herity (4 matches)
280 minutes Paul Murphy (4 matches)
270 minutes Colin Fennelly (4 matches)
163 minutes Eoin McCormack (3 matches)
147 minutes Richie Mullally (6 matches)
147 minutes Donncha Cody (3 matches)
140 minutes Paddy Hogan (3 matches)
96 minutes PJ Delaney (3 matches)
91 minutes Eoin Reid (3 matches)
58 minutes John Mulhall (7 matches)
21 minutes Sean Cummins (1 matches)
12 minutes Peter Cleere (1 matches)
1 minutes Matthew Ruth (1 matches)