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.

Format

Overview

The Kilkenny County Championship is a single elimination tournament. Each team is afforded just one defeat before being eliminated from the championship. Pairings for matches are drawn at random, however, there is a certain level of seeding based on league performance. The four top-ranking teams receive a bye into the quarter-finals.

Current format

First round: 10 teams contest this round. The 5 winning teams advance directly to the quarter-final stage. The 5 losing teams are eliminated from the championship. The lower-ranked teams from the league advance to a relegation playoff. Quarter-finals: Eight teams contest this round. The four winning teams advance directly to the semi-final stage. The four losing teams are eliminated from the championship. Semi-finals: Four teams contest this round. The two winning teams advance directly to the final. The two losing teams are eliminated from the championship. Final: The final is contested by the two semi-final winners.

Teams

Participating teams

The following 13 teams participated in the 2023 championship:

Wins listed by club

Finals listed by year

Records

Teams

By decade

The most successful team of each decade, judged by number of Kilkenny Senior Football Championship titles, is as follows:

Most consecutive wins

Gaps/wins

Top three longest gaps between championship titles:

Winners and finalists

The Double

Two teams have won the Kilkenny Senior Football Championship and the Kilkenny Senior Hurling Championship in a single year as part of a Gaelic football-hurling double. James Stephens became the first team to win the double in 1976, having won the All-Ireland Club SHC title earlier that year. Ballyhale Shamrocks won their own double in 1979, before repeating the feat in 1980 and 1982. Dicksboro, Erin's Own, Glenmore, Mooncoin and Thomastown also hold the distinction of being dual county senior championship-winning teams, however, these were not achieved in a single calendar season. Muckalee and their sister club St. Martin's have also achieved the double.