As we start the 2013 hurling championship here are some of the top facts from the 2012 campaign:
- Tipperary’s 18 point loss to Kilkenny was their biggest defeat in in 115 years – since 1897.
- Limerick’s 6-21(39) against Laois was their highest ever score in hurling championship history. Amazingly, one week later, Limerick would beat this score by 11 points when they scored 8-26(50) against Antrim.
- If Brian Cody’s management period was considered a different county they would be the fourth most successful in championship history Cork(30), Tipperary(26), Kilkenny(25), Kilkenny -Brian Cody(9), Limerick(7)
- If you were 18 years or younger in September 2012 then this was the first All-Ireland Final in your lifetime where Kilkenny played Galway.
- Galway have still never beaten Dublin or Waterford in the entire history of the hurling championship. They have met Dublin 5 times and Waterford 10 times.
- In the last 9 championship meetings between Clare and Limerick neither team has managed two wins in a row.
- The All-Ireland final draw was the first in 53 years. In 35 meetings Galway and Kilkenny had never previously finished in a draw.
- Galway were the 7th different county that Brian Cody has met in an All Ireland final while manager of Kilkenny.
- Kilkenny have beaten Tipperary more times(five) under Brian Cody than in the previous 112 years of championship hurling.
- Kilkenny under Brian Cody have lost 3 times to Galway. The same number they have lost to all Munster teams combined(Cork 1999,2004 – Tipperary 2010).
A History of Points and Goals
The charts below show the average goals and points per year since the hurling championship began. In 1908, for some reason, the number of points being scored dropped dramatically and took almost 40 years to reach the same level again.
Goals have been on the decrease although 2011 was the highest goal average since the handpass goal was make illegal in 1990.
10 Facts About Cork Hurling You Probably Didn’t Know
(I’ve tried to keep these facts as accurate as possible but if you see anything amiss please let me know)
1. Prior to their meeting , in June 2011, Laois were the only All-Ireland winning county that Cork had never beaten in the championship. Laois won the only meeting between the sides in the 1915 All-Ireland final. In 2011 Cork unleashed 96 years of revenge in the follow up match scoring their highest ever championship score 10-20(50 pts), the biggest ever combined score in a game involving them(66 pts), their biggest winning margin since 1923 and their first time to hit 10 goals since 1933.
2. Cork’s biggest ever points(over the bar) total was 32 pts versus Kerry in 2000 when they won 2-32 to 4 points. This was also the lowest score they conceded since the 1947 Munster Quarter Final versus Clare.
3. Cork’s biggest ever winning margin was 43pts v Galway in 1902 when they won 10-13 to no score.
4. Cork have been runner up in 18 All-Ireland finals. Remarkably 13 of these were against Kilkenny.
5. Not including Kilkenny, Cork have only lost a total of 5 games against Leinster opposition – Dublin twice and Wexford, Offaly and Laois once.
6. Up to the end of 2011 Cork have played 367 Championship matches, winning 241 drawing 25 and losing 101.
7. The most points(over the bar) conceded by Cork in a game was 24 versus Antrim in the 1986 All-Ireland semi-final. However they still won this match 7-11(32) to 1-24(27).
8. Cork have never lost to Galway in a final having played them six times. In fact in 31 meetings Galway have only been victorious on 6 occasions. Cork’s defeat to Galway in 2011 was the first time Cork had lost two successive games to Galway.
9. In 1944 Cork became the first team to win 4 consecutive All-Ireland’s. Their opposition in the finals were Dublin(1941,42,44) and Antrim(1943). Antrim, who had never beaten Galway or Kilkenny before 1943 and have never been them since, beat both to reach the final. Cork weren’t in as charitable mood as the others and Antrim were handed a severe 5-16 to 0-4 hammering in the final.
10. Cork have played in more Munster Finals(79) than any other team winning 50 and losing 29. They have won the Munster Final 5 times in a row on 2 occasions 75-79 and 82-86.
10 Facts about Kilkenny Hurling You Probably Didn’t Know
1. Kilkenny have only met neighbours Carlow once in the hurling championship. That was in 1993 when Kilkenny won 5-19 to 16 points. Kilkenny have met Lancashire more times – twice(1905, 1913) .
2. In 1982 Kilkenny scored 7-31 to 0-13 versus Westmeath in the Leinster semi final. This was Kilkenny’s biggest ever score(52 points), their biggest ever winning margin(39 points) and the biggest total score in a game involving them(65 points).
3. Kilkenny have failed to score at all in two matches – 1887 v Tipp and 1898 v Dublin.
4. Kilkenny, under Brian Cody, have beaten Tipperary four times(2002,2003,2009,2011). Before Brian Cody Kilkenny had only beaten Tippeary four times in total(1909,1913,1922,1967).
5. The highest points(over the bar) scored by Kilkenny in a single game was 32 versus Galway in 1974 when they won 2-32(38) to 3-17(26).
6. The 5-18(33) conceded to Galway in the 2005 semi final was the biggest score Kilkenny conceded in a game since 1903! That was v Cork.
7. The most points Kilkenny conceded in a game was 24 v Wexford in 1974. However Kilkenny actually won this game by one point 6-13(31) to 2-24(30).
8. Kilkenny have never scored exactly 25 points(over the bar) in a game. They have scored every other total between 0 and 32.
9. What have Antrim, Waterford and Clare got in common? They have all beaten Kilkenny exactly once in the championship(1943, 1959, 1997 respectively).
10. Kilkenny have played a total of 371 championship games, winning 265, drawing 16 and losing 90. They have played Dublin the most times(82) .
Top Teams of the 21st Century
The following league table only counting matches between the ‘top’ teams.
To qualify as a ‘top’ team that team must have reached at least one All-Ireland final this century. This means that Offaly just about make it(2000 final) but Dublin and Wexford miss out.(Note: 2-Nov-2011 – It has been brought to my attention that this century started on the 1st of Jan 2001 )
The league table below counts only matches involving two ‘top’ teams. Like in the previous league table I have awarded 3 points for a win and one for a draw.
- League table of matches between the top teams since 2000
Championship League Table 2006 to 2011
To create the league table below I taken all the results from 2006 to 2011 (July 27). I have given teams three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss. While not accurate as teams play different quality teams(Antrim being the obvious example) and so on it is still an interesting reflection.
I have ranked it by average points per game rather than total although this doesn’t make much difference to the positions.
- League table of 2006 to July 2011 Matches
The Top Ten Hurling Championship Scores Since 1980
There have been two big scorelines this year that have hit the headlines. The 10-20 from Cork and 7-19 from Tipperary got me wondering about how these scores rank against other big scores in modern times. I’ve compiled three top tens on the hurling championship scores counting matches since 1980. The categories are: top team scores, top winning margins and top overall match scores.
Of the scorelines mentioned above the Cork one finishes on top of one of the charts but the Tipperary one doesn’t make the top ten in any of the three categories.
- Top Ten team scores since 1980
- Top Ten match scores since 1980
- Top Ten winning margins since 1980
Who are the championship goal machines?
The most mentioned statistic of the weekend was that Tipperary have scored 24 goals in their last 6 games. An impressive feat particularly when you take into account the opposition: Galway, Waterford, Kilkenny, Cork, Clare and Waterford again.
- Table 1: Goals over last ten games
But how do the remaining championship teams compare in their goal scoring rates? I’ve taking a nice round number of ten and decided to compare the teams over their last ten games with regard to their goal scoring ability.
At the time of writing(12-July-2011) There are 6 teams and 5 matches remaining. Table 1 shows the results of our hurling jury.
The first thing of interest to note is that prior, to Tipperary’s six game 24 goal extravaganza, they failed to score in three of the previous four games! The last team to keep a clean sheet against Tipperary was Offaly. Despite giving everyone a head start Tipperary still managed to score the most over the ten games.
Another point of interest is that the big 3 teams are are scoring a lot more goals than the other three. It’s also pretty apparent that when it comes to scoring goals Dublin need to ‘try much harder’ as they only managed to goal in 4 of their last ten games coming up with a total of just six goals.
- Goals accumulating over last 10 games
Also of note is that Waterford’s goal scoring rate has dried up of late. In 2007 and 2008 they scored 15 and 12 goals respectively during the season. In 2009 and 2010 combined they only many 10 goals in 9 games.
Limerick have been goal shy for a long time and their best seasons was in recent times were in 2005 and 2007 when they scored 10 goals in both years although it was from a total of 13 matches.
While it is hard to draw anything conclusive from a small set of data it is interesting to note that along with being on top in recent times Tipp, Kilkenny and Galway are the biggest goal scorers of this century so far on 107(56 games), 104(50 games) and 102(43 games) goals respectively.
In recent times a common topic of discussion is the number of points now being scored by teams in the championship. Kilkenny’s 3-30 in the 2008 final or Galway hitting 31 points v Antrim in 2007 makes it seem like there are more points being scored. However in 1982 Cork and Kilkenny both scored 31 points in games.
So is it really the case that points are on the increase or are we getting caught up in the games with the big scores?
In figure 1 below we can see that point scoring has increased. The points average jumped in 1997 and then jumped up again in 2005. What makes it all the more remarkable is that as games have increased so have points average when you would expect the opposite. It is easier average 4 goals in 2 games than in 10 games. In 1997 the number of games per year was around 17 whereas from 2002 the number of games is generally around 30.
There are theories such as a lighter ball, more frees etc. contributing to the greater number of points but whatever the reason point scoring is definitely on the increase.
Figure 1 Average points per match since 1980
Another interesting fact is that, in the same period of time, the number of goals have decreased. In figure 1 was can see that goals began a decrease in 1983 and despite a spike in 1989, when goals appeared to rain down from the heavens, they have never recovered their early eighties level. One reason for this is the ‘Handpass rule’ in 1990 which prohibited the scoring of goals using a handpass.
On the plus side goal scoring seems to have leveled out and goals are not on the decrease. Indeed 2011 is looking like being a bumper year with a current average of 4.18 goals per game(correct on July 6th 2011) .
Figure 2 Average goals per match since 1980
Hurling Facts 