The new weighting, taking into account the returns from the past three years, has been applied to the 74 Championship games in the database. Below are some comparisons of teams/players/games over that period.
Top 5 Shooting Performances
| Player | Weighting | Game | Year |
| C O’Neill | 4.065 | Cork V Sligo | 2014 |
| R Munnelly | 3.150 | Dublin V Laois | 2014 |
| C O’Connor | 2.885 | Mayo V Donegal | 2013 |
| J O’Donoghue | 2.555 | Kerry V Galway | 2014 |
| J O’Donoghue | 2.547 | Kerry V Cork | 2014 |
C O’Neill hit a wonderful 10 from 10 in Cork’s Rd4 qualifier against Sligo in Tullamore last year. He was 6/6 from play with three strikes coming from outside the 20m line whilst he converted 4/4 from deadballs including a 45. Yet it could have been improved upon – one of his conversions was a goal shot that went over the bar (just saying!)
Ross Munnelly’s game against Dublin stands out not only for its quality but also for the fact that he did it on a team that eventually lost by 11 points. He was immense that day.
We’ll touch on O’Donoghue anon.
Top 5 Overall performers
| Player | Total shots | Success Rate | Weighting |
| J O’Donoghue | 63 | 73% | 12.937 |
| P Flynn | 48 | 56% | 7.507 |
| C O’Connor | 119 | 68% | 7.468 |
| C O’Neill | 50 | 64% | 6.006 |
| C Cooper | 51 | 73% | 5.534 |
Given that O’Donoghue has two of the top five one off performances it should be no surprise to see him sitting comfortably atop the overall table. Part of why he is so far ahead of everyone is the fact that he has only returned one game with a negative weighting – this year’s All Ireland final when he missed his one shot.
O’Donoghue is running at a remarkable 73% conversion rate – as was Cooper throughout ‘12 & ‘13. Scary thought for those trying to topple Kerry what with the imminent return of Tommy Walsh as well.
Flynn’s weighting is huge on such a low Success Rate. This is due to where he shoots from; he has had 41 point attempts charted and only two were from inside the 20m line. Sectors 4 & 5 are his playground; he has a Success Rate of 69% on these (20 from 29).
Re Dublin it shows at times how easy the mopping up duty has been for them. D Rock, who mainly has had cameo roles coming off the bench, is 7th on the overall list converting 80% (20 from 25) of his shots for a weighting of +5.196.
O’Connor’s accuracy, over so many shots is noteworthy. Only B Brogan & C McFadden are credited, alongside O’Connor, with more than 100 shots.
Top 5 from play
| Player | Weighting | Game | Year |
| J O’Donoghue | 3.041 | Cork V Kerry | 2014 |
| B Brogan | 2.929 | Dublin V Louth | 2012 |
| C O’Neill | 2.621 | Cork V Sligo | 2014 |
| E Keating | 2.601 | Cavan V Donegal | 2012 |
| J O’Donoghue | 2.555 | Kerry V Galway | 2014 |
Unsurprisingly three of the top5 overall games reappear. *If* we had adjustments based on the defence you faced then I’m sure Keating’s performance against the Donegal wall in 2012 would come out on top. He was genuinely remarkable that day hitting 5/6 with four of his five scores coming from outside the 20m line. He had one free from the right hand side out in Sector6 – had he converted that it would have been the 2nd highest scoring performance ever behind O’Neill.
Cluxton & 45s
Stephen Cluxton has converted 75% of his 45s (21 from 28). The Rest of Ireland combined is running at 39% rate (38 from 97). That difference is phenomenal.
Cluxton’s 28 attempts make up 22% of all 45s recorded – I can’t imagine any other player has such an impact on any other slicing of the database.
Top rated deadball games
| Player | Weighting | Game | Year |
| S Cavanagh | 2.382 | Tyrone V Meath | 2013 |
| S Cluxton | 1.964 | Dublin V Cork | 2013 |
| C McFadden | 1.687 | Donegal V Cavan | 2012 |
| C O’Connor | 1.674 | Dublin V Mayo | 2012 |
| S Cluxton | 1.623 | Dublin V Mayo | 2012 |
| S Cluxton | 1.568 | Dublin V Kildare | 2013 |
I’m obviously showing the Top6 just to get three Cluxton games in!
I guess it is no surprise to see Cluxton up there so often given his prowess from 45s though it is worth noting that he is only converting at 43% (9 from 21) for free kicks.
Cavanagh hit a rich vein of form in 2013 from frees. He was 3 from 3 against Kildare in Newbridge then hit 6 from 6 (all from Sector 6!) in Croke Park in the next game against Meath.
Top team performances
| Team | Weighting | Game | Year |
| Mayo | 6.813 | Mayo V Donegal | 2013 |
| Cork | 6.202 | Cork V Kildare | 2012 |
| Mayo | 5.408 | Mayo V Dublin | 2012 |
| Mayo | 4.629 | Mayo V Galway | 2013 |
| Donegal | 4.248 | Donegal V Down | 2012 |
No forwards how are ya! Mayo occupy three of the top five positions with the standout being their 2013 QF demolition of Donegal.
One of the oddest “oddities” from doing this was the fact that Kerry’s shooting in the All Ireland final was the 3rd worst out of 148 entries – they were truly appalling shooting wise
| Team | Weighting | Game | Year |
| Kerry | -4.389 | Kerry V Donegal | 2014 |
| Roscommon | -4.604 | Roscommon V Mayo | 2013 |
| London | -4.697 | Mayo V London | 2013 |
Top 5 games
| Game | Weighting | Year |
| Mayo V Donegal | 7.337 | 2013 |
| Derrv V Down | 6.843 | 2013 |
| Dublin V Mayo | 5.487 | 2012 |
| Kerry V Mayo | 5.452 | 2014 |
| Dublin V Kerry | 4.793 | 2013 |
Sooo – hands up who had an Ulster QF down as being one of the Top5 most accurate games? Didn’t think so! The remarkable thing about Mayo’s annihilation of Donegal in 2013 was that shooting wise Donegal didn’t capitulate. Usually in these one sided hidings one team is just atrocious – not on that day.
Two modern day “classics” – the Dublin-Kerry SF in ’13 and the drawn SF between Kerry & Mayo this year – are represented. Sometimes the stats do back up what the eye sees. I’m still flummoxed how Kerry could be involved in those games and then produce what they did in this year’s final!
Worst recorded game
| Game | Weighting | Year |
| Dublin V Wexford | -6.392 | 2012 |
| Mayo V London | -5.058 | 2013 |
| Mayo V Roscommon | -4.871 | 2013 |
No need to elaborate really. We have seen from above that Roscommon & London produced stinkers but here it shows that Mayo didn’t shoot the lights out to rescue the game. Given their lofty status in the top five games they were basically brought down by the paucity of the opposition. The Dublin Wexford game was just atrocious – both teams were as bad as each other ranking 120th and 144th on the overall list.
Most shots from deadballs
| Game | Attempts | Year |
| Meath Tyrone | 23 | 2013 |
| Dublin V Meath | 20 | 2013 |
| Down V Monaghan | 19 | 2012 |
| Dublin V Laois | 19 | 2012 |
| Meath V Wexford | 19 | 2013 |
| Laois V Meath | 19 | 2012 |
| Donegal V Monaghan | 19 | 2014 |
Ha. So four of the top seven games in terms of shots attempted from deadballs involve Meath. I was going to make a joke about the spirit of Mick Lyons living on but in two of those games Michael Newman had 11 attempts – showing that Meath were as much sinned against as sinner. Newman is the only player to have 11 attempts in a game (Brian Farrell & Cillian O’Connor managed 10) so it is likely that the high Meath counts are more an indication of Meath’s confidence in Newman’s distance than anything else.
Not sure what exactly the players in the 2012 Munster final were on but only five shots were attempted from deadballs in that one
dontfoul 
June 4, 2015 at 12:18 |
[…] this with a heretofore unthinkable +10.297 • Both B Brogan (3rd) and D Rock (6th) enter the top 10 individual performances from play and deadballs […]
June 10, 2015 at 22:37 |
[…] Watching the game it felt that every other shot was a free and up until ~53 minute it was. At that stage there had been 19 shots from play and 16 from frees. The volume of shots did not exceed those from play until the 33rd minute. Still that relative lull in the last 20 minutes only places this game on a par with Cavan – Monaghan this year for the second most shots from frees in a game – the *honour* of that title still lies with Meath – Tyrone in 2013. […]