The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 1972 was the 85th staging of Ireland's premier hurling knock-out competition. Kilkenny won the championship, beating Cork 3–24 to 5–11 in the final at Croke Park, Dublin.

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 1972 was run on a provincial basis as usual. It was a knockout tournament with pairings drawn at random in the respective provinces – there were no seeds.

Each match was played as a single leg. If a match was drawn there was a replay. If that match ended in a draw a period of extra time was played, however, if both sides were still level at the end of extra time another replay had to take place.

Munster Championship

Quarter-final: (1 match) This was a single match between the first two teams drawn from the province of Munster.

Semi-finals: (2 matches) The winner of the lone quarter-final joined the other three Munster teams to make up the semi-final pairings.

Final: (1 match) The winner of the two semi-finals contested this game.

Leinster Championship