2005 National Hurling League

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2005 National Hurling League

The 2005 Allianz National Hurling League was the 74th NHL season. It ran from 20 February to early May 2005 and involved 32 teams across three divisions.

Winners and final
- Division 1 champions: Kilkenny, captained by Peter Barry and managed by Brian Cody. This was Kilkenny’s 12th league title; they lost only one match all season.
- Runners-up: Clare, who also suffered just one defeat in the group stage but lost to Kilkenny in the final.
- Final score: Kilkenny 3-20, Clare 0-15.

Relegation
- Dublin were relegated from Division 1 after a poor campaign.

Division 2
- Winners: Offaly, earning promotion back to Division 1 after just one defeat in the group stage.
- Runners-up: Carlow, who also had only one defeat until the final, when they were defeated by Offaly.

Division 3
- Winners: Mayo, earning promotion (Division 3 final followed Mayo’s victory over Donegal).
- Runners-up: Donegal.
- Bottom team in Division 3B: Cavan.
- Notable: Sligo had a tough campaign, with only a draw to show for their efforts.

Top scorer and notable statistics
- Top scorer in Division 1: Ger Farragher (Galway) with 2-54.
- Notable results: Biggest win and highest-scoring game was Wexford’s 9-24 to 2-4 win over Down (26 March 2005). Biggest away win was Tipperary’s 6-21 to 0-10 win over Antrim (20 March 2005).
- A new experimental rule was trialed: two points were awarded for a point scored directly from a sideline cut.