| 2012 Leinster Senior Hurling final | |
| Event: | 2012 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship |
| Team1: | Galway |
| Team1score: | 2-21 |
| Team2score: | 2-11 |
| Date: | 8 July 2012 |
| Stadium: | Croke Park |
| City: | Dublin |
| Referee: | J. McGrath (Westmeath) |
| Attendance: | 22,171[1] |
| Weather: | Dry |
| Previous: | 2011 |
| Next: | 2013 |
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.
Galway were 11/2 outsiders going into this game. On the day of the game RTÉ delivered a verdict favouring Kilkenny, saying "Kilkenny's vice-like grip on the Leinster title is set to remain as tight as ever, unless Galway can produce something extraordinary at Croke Park today".[2]
Galway secured a historic first ever Leinster title, after unexpectedly defeating the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Champions, Kilkenny.[3] 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.[4] The result sent the Bob O'Keeffe Cup across the Shannon for the first time in the GAA's 128-year history.[5]
Kilkenny manager Brian Cody said afterwards that his team were "wiped out" by Galway.[6] 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".[7] 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".[8]
The teams would meet again in the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final to decide the destination of the Liam MacCarthy Cup, with Kilkeeny winning that game after a replay.
A 2012 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship winners' medal was later sold on eBay for €570.[9]