Following on from the remarkable stat in the recent Dublin-Tyrone league game where 40% of Dublin’s shots from play were attempts on goal I decided to revisit the ’13 Championship returns.
| Team | % of all shots | Conversion Rate | Point shots per goal shots |
| Dublin | 25% | 32% | 2.98 |
| Mayo | 15% | 59% | 5.86 |
| Kerry | 11% | 40% | 8.20 |
| Tyrone | 8% | 13% | 11.38 |
| ’13 Average | 13% | 31% | 6.70 |
| ’13 Semi Finalists | 16% | 38% | 5.23 |
| ’13 Non Semi Finalists | 10% | 19% | 8.98 |
Perhaps to no one’s surprise Dublin were the most goal hungry of the four semi finalists, and indeed of all counties covered within the 25 games, with 25% of all their shots from play being attempts at goal. Considering the average as a whole is 13%, and Mayo were next best of the semi finalists at 15%, that is a huge gap. Even measured a different way, goal shots per shots for points, Dublin still considerably outstrip all other teams in terms of how often they go for goal.
Considering the array of talent at Dublin’s disposal their goal finishing is disappointing at 32%. Much like in their breath taking performances against Cork and Derry at the back end of this year’s league they did not rack up goals because of deadly finishing – they racked up scores because they produced average quality finishing on a ridiculous amount of chances.
Is this a Gavin ploy or something Dublin do naturally? The finishing is consistent from year to year with Dublin converting 32% of their goal shots in 2012 however the volume of shots was running at 18% as opposed to 25% (or one goal shot for every 4.68 shots for a point). This year will tell us more as that drop could just be down to randomness or the opponents faced but it is significant. Given the returns in the 4 league games covered in 2014 it would appear to be Galvin led though.
The quality of the goal shot attempted (position on the pitch, goalkeeper position, number of defenders in the vicinity – or indeed in the way) is not tracked however looking at the very low conversion rates for the non semi finalists I would be willing to bet that those returns are an amalgam of (a) less skilled finishers and (b) teams chasing a game taking goal shots from less advantageous positions.
*as an aside the fact that Dublin take so many shots means that they could have had a greater impact on what the average is. Without Dublin the average conversion rate is 30.4%.
dontfoul 
November 18, 2015 at 21:44 |
[…] have always gone for goal at a higher rate than other teams. Things were no different in 2015. They made up 13% of the competitors in the 26 games recorded but […]