Newsflash – Gaelic footballers are more disciplined than hurlers. Those who like to portray hurling as ‘the greatest field game in the world’ will take some convincing as to the veracity of that claim but it stands up to scrutiny under one important heading.
More scores come from placed balls in hurling than football. It’s not a tight call either, with almost a seven per cent differential.
Football’s return from placed balls across the major senior competitions came in at 23.5 per cent in 2022, with hurling on 30.1 per cent.
That will come as a surprise to the casual observer since hurling is more free-flowing.
However, with modern-day hurling free-takers capable of driving the ball huge distances, most of the pitch is a scoring area.
Hurling’s yield would be considerably higher if referees applied the handpass and ‘steps’ rules more strictly.
They are notoriously lenient on both, especially in recent years when the trend has been very much towards letting play flow.
There’s a case to be made for that in borderline calls but many of the handpasses are so blatantly illegal that it remains a mystery why referees don’t apply the rule. They are equally lax on excessive steps.
It’s baffling why the GAA authorities ignore such consistent disregard for two important rules but, for whatever reason, that’s what they have chosen to do.
Despite that, more than three of every ten scores come from placed balls.
As with football, there was a big variation between counties in the number of scores from placed balls. Again, there’s no easy explanation why that was the case.
Of the 24 Division 1 and 2 counties, Meath recorded the highest number of placed ball scores (39.3 per cent) across all competitions while Kildare had the lowest return (18.4 per cent.).
That’s a massive difference, one which will, no doubt, raise eyebrows in Lilywhite land.
Laois (39.1 per cent) and Dublin (35.2 per cent) were highest of the Liam MacCarthy Cup counties while Kilkenny were lowest on 22.9 per cent.
All-Ireland champions Limerick were on 29.9 per cent, just ahead of Galway, Waterford and Tipperary.
Kilkenny will, no doubt, be wondering why they came in so low on the placed ball scoring charts.
TJ Reid is one of the great all-time free-takers so it’s not as if they miss more than the opposition.
Percentage of scores from palce balls in hurling in 2022
Obviously they weren’t awarded as many frees as their rivals, the reason for which wasn’t readily apparent.
Dublin’s Donal Burke led the scoring charts (league and championship) among the top counties, finishing on 1-112.
He was followed by Offaly’s Eoghan Cahill (3-99) and Stephen Bennett (Waterford) on 9-80.
Rory O’Connor (Wexford) led the way from play on 5-30, followed by Kilkenny’s Martin Keoghan on 10-12. He was, by a distance, the top goal-scorer, including three games where he hit two.
Aaron Gillane was Limerick’s top scorer from play on 4-29, followed by Cork’s Darragh Fitzgibbon (5-23).
His colleagues Shane Kingston and Conor Lehane also featured in the top six, underlining Cork’s attacking power. However, their defensive problems continue as they conceded a total of 24 points or more in 11 of their 13 league and championship games in 2022.
Martin Breheny’s 2022 Scoring Analysis: Hurling Focus
YOUR COUNTY’S TOP FIVE SCORERS
ALLIANZ LEAGUE, All-IRELAND C’SHIP, JOE McDONAGH, CHRISTY RING, NICKEY RACKARD CUPS
