{"id":352829,"date":"2026-03-18T16:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/352829\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:10:14","slug":"football-is-going-the-way-of-hurling-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/352829\/","title":{"rendered":"football is going the way of hurling \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the headline outcomes of Gaelic football\u2019s revolution<\/a> is that it has become more like hurling: more attacks, more shots, more scores, more scoreboard swings, more unsafe leads. Last weekend\u2019s matches in Division 1 of the National Football League<\/a> is a very small sample, but it is reflective of a greater trend. <\/p>\n

The average total score across four games was 2.5 goals and 41 points. The average score in Division 1 of the National Hurling League<\/a> so far this year is 2 goals and 41 points. In the modern history of both games the difference in scoring between hurling and football has never been so marginal. Could it be the first time that football\u2019s scoring on a given weekend outstripped hurling\u2019s seasonal average? Almost certainly. <\/p>\n

Widen the lens and the difference is still small. The average score across all games in Division 1 of the football league this year is 2.5 goals and 36 points. <\/p>\n

These numbers compare extremely favourably with last year\u2019s championship. According to data collated by the GAA\u2019s Games Intelligence Unit, last summer\u2019s provincial championship and Sam Maguire games produced an average of 2.1 goals and just less than 40 points.<\/p>\n

The scoring in the championship is obviously influenced by kinder weather, firmer pitches and full-strength selections, but the numbers are also queered by games between teams from different tiers of the league.<\/p>\n

\"Tyrone'sTyrone’s Niall Devlin scores a goal during Saturday’s Division 2 fixture against Meath at Croke Park. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo\/Inpho <\/p>\n

In the league, the weather, the playing surfaces, diluted team selections and each county\u2019s short-term goals are all significant variables. For scoring in Division 1 of the league to hold up so strongly against all those factors reflects a powerful trend.<\/p>\n

Last weekend alone, there was an extraordinary double-header in Croke Park where both losing teams reached 28 points \u2013 goals and points combined. In the 2024 league \u2013 the last before the new rules were introduced \u2013 the highest losing score in both Division 1 and Division 2 was 18 points. <\/p>\n

Also last weekend, Cork<\/a> scored 1-31 against Kildare<\/a> in Division 2, which was extraordinary not just of itself but in the context of their previous match, in which they had conceded 1-31 against Derry<\/a>. In the history of football, has any team has ever shipped 1-31 and then racked up 1-31 in successive games? Not a chance. <\/p>\n

A spike in goalscoring has clearly contributed to the bigger totals. Last year, 487 goals were scored across all competitions, including the Tailteann Cup<\/a>, compared with 445 goals scored under the old rules a year before. In this year\u2019s league, goalscoring numbers have continued to surge: the average of 2.5 in Division 1 so far this season represents a significant jump on 2.3 goals per game across all of 2025.<\/p>\n

The other major contributory factor is that teams have become more adept at creating two-point shooting opportunities, and players have more license to shoot.<\/p>\n

\"Kerry'sKerry’s David Clifford scores a two-pointer despite the best efforts of Donegal’s Brendan McCole during last year’s All-Ireland final. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Kerry<\/a> are a vivid example of a team who spent last season working this out on the hoof. During last year\u2019s league they were notably shot-shy from outside the 40-metre arc, and it was something that Jack O\u2019Connor was continually asked about. Kerry, though, were the top goalscorers in Division 1, with 17 goals, including one in the final against Mayo<\/a>. O\u2019Connor\u2019s repeated answer was that as long as they were scoring goals he wasn\u2019t too bothered about the two-pointers.<\/p>\n

During the championship, though, that attitude changed. On their pre-championship training camp in Portugal they consciously worked on ways to create more two-point shooting opportunities, and it became an essential plank of their attacking game. <\/p>\n

In the All-Ireland final against Donegal<\/a> they attempted a staggering 13 two-pointers and scored five of them. In this year\u2019s league so far they have scored six two-pointers against both Donegal and Mayo and have kicked 19 in all.<\/p>\n

The Games Intelligence Unit \u2013 which was retained by Croke Park after the Football Review Committee disbanded \u2013 has not crunched the numbers on this year\u2019s league yet, but last year\u2019s average of 4.7 two-pointers per game \u2013 both teams combined \u2013 has been surpassed across the board in this year\u2019s league. <\/p>\n

The trend is only going one way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the headline outcomes of Gaelic football\u2019s revolution is that it has become more like hurling: more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6937,4183,61,60,95595,112],"class_list":["post-352829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-national-football-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}