Kilkenny Senior Football Championship

Kilkenny Senior Football Championship
IrishCraobh Peile Sinsearach Chill Chainnigh
CodeGaelic football
Founded1887; 137 years ago (1887)
Region Kilkenny (GAA)
No. of teams13
Title holders Dicksboro (3rd title)
Most titles Railyard (22 titles)
SponsorsJ. J. Kavanagh & Sons
Official websiteKilkenny GAA

The Kilkenny Senior Football Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the J. J. Kavanagh & Sons Senior Football Championship and abbreviated to the Kilkenny SFC) is an annual club Gaelic football competition organised by the Kilkenny County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association and contested by the top-ranking senior clubs in the county of Kilkenny in Ireland. It is the most prestigious competition in Kilkenny Gaelic football.

Introduced in 1887 as the Kilkenny Football Championship, it was initially a straight knockout tournament open only to senior-ranking club teams. The championship has gone through a number of changes throughout the years, including the use of a round robin, before reverting to a straight knockout format.

In its current format, the Kilkenny Senior Championship begins in April with a first round series of games comprising ten teams, while the three remaining teams receive byes to the quarter-final stage. A team's finishing position in the Kilkenny Senior Football League determines at what stage they enter the championship. Four rounds of games are played, culminating with the final match at Nowlan Park. The winner of the Kilkenny Senior Championship qualifies for the subsequent Leinster Intermediate Club Championship.

The competition has been won by 35 teams, 18 of which have won it more than once. Railyard is the most successful team in the tournament's history, having won it 22 times. Dicksboro are the 2024 champions, having beaten Lisdowney by 1–09 to 1–06 in the final.[1]

  1. ^ "Kilkenny SFC Final: First half surge enough to give Dicksboro senior title". Kilkenny People. 20 May 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.