2011 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final

The 2011 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final took place in Croke Park, Dublin on Sunday, 4 September 2011. The final was contested by Kilkenny and defending champions, Tipperary. Kilkenny were playing in their sixth consecutive final, while the pairing of Kilkenny and Tipperary was the first ever time that the same two teams have played in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final for three consecutive seasons. Kilkenny won their fifth title in six years after a four-point win against Tipperary, avenging their 2010 defeat. The final which was shown live in Ireland on RTÉ2 attracted the second highest ever viewership for an All Ireland Hurling Final, peaking at 1.1 million viewers in the final minutes. An average audience of 971,000 viewers tuned into the game overall.

Kilkenny were Leinster champions, having beaten Wexford by 1–26 to 1–15 and Dublin by 4–17 to 1–15 in the final to earn that title. They then beat Waterford in the semi-final on 7 August by 2–19 to 1–16 to reach the final. Tipperary opened their campaign as defending champion's against Cork in the first round on 29 May and won by a scoreline of 3–22 to 0–23. They then defeated Clare by 4–19 o 1–19 to set up a Munster Final meeting with Waterford. Tipperary defeated Waterford by 7–19 to 0–19 to win their third Munster title in four years. Dublin were then defeated by 1–19 to 0–18 to set up a third consecutive All Ireland final against Kilkenny.

Match tickets for the final in all of the three Stands increased from €70 to €80 and all Terrace tickets increased by €5 to €40 from the 2010 final prices.

The pre-match betting made Tipperary slight favourites, with Bookmaker Paddy Power giving odds of 8/11 on a Tipperary win, Kilkenny were 6/4 to win with a draw at 11/1.

Prior to the senior final, Galway claimed the 2011 Minor Hurling Championship after a 1–21 to 1–12 win against Dublin.

Tipperary manager Declan Ryan named an unchanged team from the team that defeated Dublin in the semi-final for the final. In a positional change, Séamus Callanan started at left half forward with Noel McGrath at centre half forward.

Kilkenny's Colin Fennelly was a major doubt for the final after picking up a hamstring injury in a club match. However, he recovered sufficiently to be named in the starting team. The Kilkenny team had one change from the team that had beaten Waterford in the semi-final. Eddie Brennan was included, replacing TJ Reid at right half forward.

Offaly-based referee Brian Gavin was named as the referee for the 2011 All-Ireland final on 16 August. The Clara native took charge of his first final after previously taken charge of the All-Ireland championship final at minor level in 2004 and at under-21 level in 2006. Barry Kelly of Westmeath was the standby referee, the other linesman was John Sexton of Cork and the sideline official was Galway's Alan Kelly.