Castlebar V Crossmaglen 2016 Club Championship Semi Final

For those new to the blog, or who haven’t been here for a while, please find a refresher on the definitions and how the numbers are compiled here

Overall

Team	Possessions	Attacks	Shots	Scores	Exp Pts
Castlebar	41	28	22	0 – 13	14.58
Crossmaglen	45	29	26	0 – 12	14.98

One thing that the numbers cannot measure is grit.

Castlebar were on the end of an absolute blitzkrieg in the first 20 minutes. When Jamie Clarke popped over his second point to make it 0-08 to 0-3 Crossmaglen led the possession stakes 21 – 13 and were 14 – 7 ahead in shots. Indeed by the 7th minute Crossmaglen had unleashed 7 shots and had seen a Jamie Clarke effort dribble just past the post. Castlebar on the other hand had entered Crossmaglen’s 45 just once during that opening assault.

It is to their immense credit that they were still in the game at half time let alone managed to overhaul Crossmaglen.

 

Shots from Play

Team	Shots	Scores	Exp Pts
Castlebar	12	0 – 07	6.16
Crossmaglen	21	0 – 08	10.91

Crossmaglen had two very good goal chances in the first half. Alongside the aforementioned Clarke opportunity Murtagh had an effort cleared off the line after rounding the keeper. Had either gone in Crossmaglen may well have been out of sight. As it was Crossmaglen, upon the restart, struggled to reproduce their first half output manufacturing just the seven shots from play and scoring 0-02.

What of Castlebar? They struggled for long periods. They went a full 16 minutes in the first half without a point attempt from play. In the second half they managed just the five shots from play with one in the last 20 minutes.

There is the argument that they weren’t manufacturing shots from play as Crossmaglen were fouling. Whilst there in this to explain their suppressed numbers the sense I got as the game progressed was that Castlebar were not being denied opportunities through Crossmaglen’s fouling but rather were being handed easy chances through Crossmaglen’s rashness. They will want to produce more against Ballyboden in the final.

One quick note on Jamie Clarke. It is a shame we won’t see his unique skillset in an Armagh jersey this year. I’m not sure I have seen any player take as many shots from the “wrong” side – and as effectively – as Clarke did here. Five of his seven shots were taken with the left foot from the left side of the pitch. He scored 0-04 from those five shots with some of them coming from a very acute angle.

 

Shots from deadballs

Team	Shots	Scores	Success Rates	Exp Pts
Castlebar	10	0 – 06	60%	8.42
Crossmaglen	5	0 – 04	80%	4.07

Not a vintage deadball day but then comparing a heavy winter ball, on a soggy pitch, against intercounty Summer football is probably unfair. Still nothing can excuse that missed free from the 20m line!

Douglas had nine deadball attempts converting 67% (0 – 06). This is in line with Summer averages however on the whole his chances were of the easier variety as shown by the fact that he was expected to score ~7.4 points from those nine attempts.

 

Kickouts

Castlebar’s kickouts	Won	%	Turned into an attack	Shot
Castlebar	11	50%	6	6
Crossmaglen	11	50%	8	8
Crossmaglen’s kickouts	Won	%	Turned into an attack	Shot
Castlebar	8	44%	6	4
Crossmaglen	10	56%	6	6

A relatively even battle aided somewhat by the fact that both teams eschewed the short kickout; there was just two in total both coming from the Crossmaglen keeper.

Given the fact that Crossmaglen converted 90% of all their attacks into a shot it is no surprise to see that they were very good at getting a shot off once the kickout was won. Looking ahead Castlebar will be a bit concerned at just how easily Crossmaglen could manufacture scores from set ball. 0-10 of Crossmaglen’s total emanated from kickout possessions with 0-06 coming from the 11 Castlebar kickouts they won.

Although they won just as much primary ball Castlebar were not as good at manufacturing an end product. 0 – 07 of their total score came directly from possession won on kickouts with 0-03 coming from the opposition’s kickout.

 

Shot Charts

Castlebar’s shooting

Crossmaglen’s shooting

x = missed, disc = score, yellow = deadball, red = attempt at goal, black = 1st half from play, white = 2nd half from play

 

Players with >= 3 shots from play

	Shots	Scores	Success Rate	Exp Pts
J Clarke (Crossmaglen)	7	4	57%	4.19
P Durkan (Castlebar)	3	3	100%	1.24
S Kernan (Crossmaglen)	3	2	67%	1.31
N Lydon (Castlebar)	3	1	33%	1.41
N Douglas (Castlebar)	3	0	0%	2.04

Castlebar Mitchells V Breaffy 2015 Mayo County Final

For those new to the blog, or who haven’t been here for a while, please find a refresher on the definitions and how the numbers are compiled here

Overall

Team	Possessions	Attacks	Attack Rate	Shots	Shot Rate	Scores	Success Rate	Weighting
Castlebar	48	39	81%	30	77%	4-10	47%	-0.966
Breaffy	49	34	69%	20	59%	0-09	45%	-0.787

Both teams had the same amount of possession and were relatively even in the accuracy stakes. That though is where the similarities end. Breaffy struggled mightily to convert their possession into shots & scores; they scored 0.18 points per possession whereas Castlebar produced 0.46pts per possession. Breaffy’s inability to produce shots – manufacturing a full ten less than Castlebar – did not just occur in the second half when they were chasing the game. In the first half they attempted ten shots from their 23 possessions. The second half also returned 10 shots albeit from 26 possessions.

We don’t have many club games charted however Castlebar’s numbers tend to stack up against Corofin’s, possibly the best club in the country, in the Galway SFC final. In that game Corofin won by a similar margin with a possession count of 50 and attack & shot rates of 70% and 74% respectively. Where Castlebar will have to up their game is in their shooting. Corofin had a Success Rate of 62% and a weighting of +3.90 against Mountbellew. Here Castlebar were ~1 point below expected despite scoring 4 – 00 from five goal attempts.

 

Shots from Play

Team	Shots	Scores	Success Rate	Weighting
Castlebar	24	4-06	42%	-0.226
Breaffy	14	0-05	36%	-1.440

As stated above Castlebar were ruthlessly efficient when going for goal. Their five goal attempts had a combined weighting of +2.31. This however means that their point attempts were quite poor returning a combined Success Rate of 32% (6 from 19) and a weighting of -2.54. They were also very “right-sided” in their shooting. As the shooting chart below shows only two, or 11%, of their shots from play came from the left – and even then they were as much central as left.

Breaffy? They only managed three shots from play until the 29th minute when Walsh, and then Seamús O’Shea, popped over points just before half time. None of their five first half point attempts were inside the 20m line.

At the start of the second half Breaffy had three quick goal shots with one hitting the post and another getting blocked on the line. The lack of return from this salvo seemed to knock the heart out of their fight as it was ~20 minutes before they had another shot, of any description, from play.

 

Shots from deadballs

Player	Shots	Scores	Success Rate	Weighting
A Walsh (Castlebar)	4	0-03	75%	-0.30
N Douglas (Castlebar)	2	0-01	50%	-0.44
C O’Shea (Breaffy)	2	0-02	100%	+0.46
R Hennelly (Breaffy)	2	0-01	50%	+0.13
T O’Reilly (Breaffy)	2	0-01	50%	+0.07

Breaffy’s reliance on the deadball early in the first half foreshadowed the drop off in the second. Five of their first seven shots were from deadballs and whilst Conor O’Shea and Hennelly scored two absolute peaches you felt it was never sustainable.

Castlebar were a combined four from six. They converted all those they would have been expected to get whilst missing the two longer range attempts

 

Kickouts

Castlebar’s kickouts	Won	%	Turned into an attack	%	Shot	%
Castlebar	8	50%	8	100%	6	75%
Breaffy	8	50%	7	88%	5	63%
Breaffy’s kickouts	Won	%	Turned into an attack	%	Shot	%
Castlebar	8	40%	8	100%	6	75%
Breaffy	12	60%	8	67%	4	33%

Breaffy “won” the kickout battle but the returns here, unsurprisingly, mirror those overall in that they struggled to convert that possession into shots.

Castlebar had the first three kickouts and lost all three. They were quick to recognise that landing the ball between the 45 & 65 was ultimately playing into the O’Shea’s so the fourth one went short. Thereafter, whilst they didn’t employ the short kickout, they did angle the longer ones to give themselves a better opportunity to compete. After those first three they then won six of their next eight which denied Breaffy any sort of platform to build from. Still it will be of some concern that they only managed to score 1
point from their 16 kickouts.

They were however much more productive on the opposition’s kickouts. Breaffy were more inclined to use the short kickout. We missed where the ball landed on three occasions but of the other 17 Breaffy went short on five occasions. Of the remaining 12 that went past the 45 Castlebar won 7 scoring 1 – 02.

 

Shot Charts

Castlebar’s shooting

Breaffy’sshooting

x = missed, disc = score, yellow = deadball, red = goal attempt, black = 1st half from play, white = 2nd half from play

 

Players with >= 3 shots from play

	Shots	Scores	Success Rate	Weighting
N Douglas (Castlebar)	6	3-00	50%	+0.53
D Kirby (Castlebar)	5	1-03	80%	+1.69
C O’Shea (Breaffy)	4	0-02	50%	+0.08