Champs’ goals are swept away
HOW has hurling changed? Just look at the dramatic reduction in Galway’s goalscoring rate this summer compared to the rest of the 10 seasons that Joe Canning has been a senior hurler.
Galway’s Championship green flags hit double digits in seven of those seasons, peaking with a staggering 14 goals in 2011 and also in 2015, when Galway previously reached the final.
In 2012, the other time a final was reached, the total was a dozen.
On four other occasions Galway totalled 11 goals in a single summer – 2009, 2010, 2014, and 2015. That leaves 2008 where nine goals were scored and 2013 when Galway still managed six goals in just three matches.
It says everything about the sweeper and even double sweeper systems that Galway faced this summer that they ended a 29-year wait without the Liam MacCarthy Cup by only finding the net twice – both coming in the very first round against Dublin.