LIMERICK LEADERS OF HURLING’S GOAL-SHY REVOLUTION
Treaty raise a good point but glut comes at the cost of majors
IN CONVERSATION with Gearóid Hegarty during the All-Ireland SHC, it was no surprise to learn he is a fourhandicap golfer. Or that he is a fan of the most talkedabout figure in golf this past year, Bryson DeChambeau.
Just as golf ’s musclebound pioneer is testing the limits of the sport with awesome displays of brute force and power, Hegarty’s Limerick have blitzed a path to All-Ireland glory by pushing the boundaries of hurling.
To shoot 36 points in the opening round of the Munster Championship against Clare on a cold October afternoon at Semple Stadium represented a real statement of intent for the unique winter competition to come.
Only once in the history of the game had a team exceeded that number of points — when Cork put up 1-40 in a 2019 qualifier against Westmeath.
That Limerick’s total came against a team who topped Group B of Division 1 — the game actually doubled as the National League final — was just another jaw-dropping element.
As the rest of the Championship unfolded, it became apparent that hurling was having its Bryson DeChambeau moment. The fundamentals of the game were being challenged. And while the focus has been on the high rate of point scoring — Limerick once again put a dent in the game’s traditional glass ceiling by hitting the 30-point mark in an All-Ireland final tour de force against Waterford — little attention has been paid to the impact on the rate of goals scored.
Significantly, the number of goals is down once again, the marginal decrease continuing the trend of recent years.
One remarkable aspect of their emphatic run to All-Ireland honours is that Limerick didn’t score a goal in four of their five Championship games.
They didn’t need to, not when Gearoid Hegarty (0-7) and Tom Morrissey (0-5) have the talent, range and accuracy to combine for a dozen points from play in the final alone. The team could be a long time chasing the equivalent contribution of four goals.
After crunching the numbers, Sportsmail found that the goalscoring rate for the 2020 Championship dropped to a new low of 2.29 goals per game. In 17 games, 39 goals were scored.
That goal average compares to 2.4 in 2019 which was significantly down on the 2.9 average of 2018. A compressed and much changed calendar meant no round-robin as in those last two years and a reduced number of games.
While the point- scoring rate continues to hit record levels, the goal- scoring rate is at an all-time low. The standard of goalkeeping is a factor — witness Waterford stopper Stephen O’Keeffe’s incredible double save in the final against Limerick, or Treaty star Nickie Quaid’s consistent excellence. Add in modern tactical innovations with sweepers and extra defenders, and a compressed middle eight, and things are sealed tight at the back. Increasing the value of a goal to four or five points is one way of keeping up with inflation, but the weight of the ball also needs to be addressed. It would go a lot further to restoring the game towards a more traditional version of itself. Here’s how it panned out in the 2020 All-Ireland senior hurling championship:
MUNSTER
4 GAMES – 8 GOALS.
GOALS win games? Not anymore. In hitting 0-36 in the Munster quarter-final against Clare, John Kiely’s Limerick set a record in the Munster Championship against a top-tier team. They didn’t need a goal in the provincial final either, hitting 0- 25 against Waterford. Before the last decade, only twice in the history of the competition had the final finished goalless. Three times since — 2013, 2015 and 2020 — there hasn’t been a goal scored.
LEINSTER
4 GAMES – 8 GOALS.
THREE teams drew a blank: Laois, Wexford and Galway. Laois hit 0-23 versus Dublin in the Leinster quarter-final yet were still comfortably beaten. Wexford’s best chance of a goal came via centre-back Matthew O’Hanlon which said a lot about their efforts. Galway hit 0-24 against Kilkenny in Leinster final, the lack of that killer goal undoing them at the end when Richie Hogan and TJ Reid showed how to find the net late on.
ALL-IRELAND SERIES
9 GAMES – 23 GOALS
A TEAM drew a blank seven times across nine games. Clare’s 0-27 was just enough to scrape past Laois in round one of the qualifiers. Dublin’s 0-22 wasn’t nearly enough against Cork. Neither was Wexford’s 0-17 against Clare in round two.
Limerick’s 0-27 to 0-24 victory over Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final was followed then by the Treaty’s 0-30 to 0-19 victory over Waterford in the final. The champions produced a masterclass in so many aspects of the game — goalscoring just wasn’t one of them. They didn’t score a goal in four of their five games, the exception being the Munster semi- f i nal against Tipperary when scoreline was Limerick 3-23 Tipperary 2-17.
The Championship produced three goalless games — the Munster final, the All-Ireland semifinal and final — all involving Limerick. Which just shows how tough they are to score against as well. Their set-up makes it hard for the opposition but is probably taking a bit of their goal threat away as well as the two wing-forwards withdraw from deep and have built their All-Star reputations with some stellar shooting from distance.
“Goal-scoring rates are at an all-time low”
TOTAL
17 GAMES – 39 GOALS = 2.29 GOALS PER GAME