| Team | Possessions | Shots | Shot Rate | Scores | Success Rate | Return Vs Expected |
| Donegal | 37 | 30 | 81% | 16 | 53% | +1.71 |
| Cork | 40 | 29 | 73% | 12 | 41% | -0.13 |
| avg | 38.5 | 27.6 | 71.7% | 13.9 | 50.4% | 0.00 |
A couple of notes on Cork. Despite the impression that they were crabbing sidewards, hand passing the ball from sideline to sideline outside the 45m in front of Donegal’s impregnable shield, Cork had just one less shot than Donegal. On top of that 66% of their shots came from Sheehan, Colm O’Neill, Kerrigan and Goulding.
So Cork had as many shots as Donegal with a majority coming from their shooters; the problem was the execution. Donegal’s defense gets a lot of credit for this. They place the shooters under immense pressure. Not only that but the pressure is completely legal – as will be highlighted below.
Donegal’s shooting was better than average however this was greatly aided by their deadball striking. McFadden is on 94% accuracy for the year to date whilst Murphy is on 73%. They hit 86% (6 out of 7) against Cork. You just really should not foul anywhere from the 45m line in as you will be punished. Make them earn their scores.
If anyone is looking for a chink of light against this Donegal team it may lie in the fact that their shooting from play was average. It is not a big chink of light – they haven’t had a bad day shooting from play but the Down game apart they haven’t had too many great ones either.
From play
| Team | Shots | Scores | Success Rate | Vs Expected |
| Donegal | 23 | 10 | 43% | +0.03 |
| Cork | 27 | 11 | 41% | -0.22 |
| avg | 20.5 | 9.2 | 44.9% | 0.00 |
From deadballs
| Player | Shots | Scores | Success Rate | Vs Expected |
| M Murphy (Donegal) | 4 | 3 | 75% | +0.71 |
| C McFadden (Donegal) | 3 | 3 | 100% | +0.97 |
| D Goulding (Cork) | 1 | 1 | 100% | +0.49 |
| A Walsh (Cork) | 1 | 0 | 0% | -0.40 |
| team avgs | 7.2 | 4.8 | 66.2% | 0.00 |
A lot of focus has been placed on Donegal’s defensive system however what is overlooked is their skill in the tackle. In the QF review I highlighted the difficulties that opposition free takers were having against Donegal. At the time I postulated that they were being very disciplined in where they were fouling but that Cork’s prowess from the deadball might force them to change their game plan. They did change their game plan – they just upped their discipline.
Donegal only allowed Cork to have one shot from a free kick (Walsh’s free was brought forward 13m due to dissent and was still taken from outside the 45). That is just truly amazing discipline & concentration.
Players with >= 2 shots from play
| Shots | Scores | Success Rate | Vs Expected | |
| C O’Neill (Cork) | 6 | 4 | 67% | +1.13 |
| C Sheehan (Cork) | 6 | 3 | 50% | +0.59 |
| C McFadden (Donegal) | 6 | 2 | 33% | -0.47 |
| P Kerrigan (Cork) | 4 | 2 | 50% | +0.28 |
| R Kavanagh (Donegal) | 4 | 1 | 25% | -0.54 |
| A Walsh (Cork) | 3 | 1 | 33% | -0.27 |
| D Goulding (Cork) | 3 | 0 | 0% | -1.16 |
| K Lacey (Donegal) | 2 | 2 | 100% | +1.25 |
| P Kelly (Cork) | 2 | 1 | 50% | +0.29 |
| M McElhinney (Donegal) | 2 | 1 | 50% | +0.1 |
| A Thompson (Donegal) | 2 | 1 | 50% | -0.08 |
| P McBrearty (Donegal) | 2 | 0 | 0% | -0.79 |
dontfoul 
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