It’s such a perfect day for unsung hero Scanlon

THE invaluable contribution of one the quiet and unsung heroes of Kerry’s All-Ireland winning squad has emerged as one of the key pointers from in-depth analysis of Sunday’s final from championship sponsors Vodafone.

The individual statistics show that Seamus Scanlon had the perfect day in the possession stakes as he was on the ball all of 20 times during the course of the game and had an unblemished pass completion rate, finding a colleague on each and every occasion.

Only his midfield colleague Darragh O Sé and Cork’s Nicholas Murphy won possession more than Scanlon (21 times each) but neither managed Scanlon’s 100% completion rate – O Sé failing with just three passes and Murphy with five.

Scanlon’s showing is indicative of an incredibly high degree of consistency. He won possession 23 times against Meath in the semi-final when he failed to complete just one pass while in the drawn All-Ireland semi-final against Cork, he won possession 25 times and hit a 100% completion rate.

The stats also reaffirmed the outstanding contribution made by RTÉ man of the match Tom O’Sullivan. Incredibly for a corner back, the Rathmore man was in possession 19 times and completed all bar one of his passes. For Cork, Graham Canty was the second most prominent player, winning possession 17 times and failing with just one pass.

Cork’s Donncha O’Connor had the most shots at target but five of his eight efforts went wide. In contrast, Colm Cooper missed just one of seven attempts.

While Cork were overrun at midfield in a critical period from the tenth minute to half-time, they recovered well in the second half and over the course of the 70 plus minutes won possession off 23 of a total of 42 kick-outs.

They won 11 of their own 22 kick-outs (50%) and, despite that patchy first half period, won 12 of Kerry’s 20 kick-outs. Turnovers also revealed Cork more than held their own as they wrested possession from Kerry 34 times compared to Kerry’s turnover tally of 30. They also put in 54 defensive tackles compared to Kerry’s 44, indicative of the fact that Kerry, overall, had 51% of possession.

Ultimately it would appear Kerry’s economy with the ball was crucial, reflected by the fact that they had 23 attempts at goal, 16 of which were pointed, six of which went wide and one of which dropped short.

Conversely, Cork had 22 shots at goal and, most critically, kicked 14 of those wide.