Sport rivalries not a numbers game

John Fogarty says that Kilkenny-Tipperary is not a “keen rivalry”, and uses Kilkenny’s big win in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final to distort the margins between them. 

The counties had very close games in the 2009-11 All-Irelands, with Tipperary’s margin of eight points, in 2010, and Kilkenny’s five, in 2009, hardly doing justice to the closeness of those games. They again had a very competitive game, with a three-point margin, in the 2013 championship.

Likewise, Mr Fogarty’s ‘aggregate’ margin in Dublin-Kerry games is mischievous and relies heavily on the 2009 quarter-final, which increased the aggregate by 17 points, and the 1978 final, which does likewise. Games between these counties have huge significance for both sets of supporters, which informs a rivalry far more than a journalist with a calculator does.