Ignore the begrudgers, O'Connor tops the Finishers Index

A week on from the spectre and inspiration of Colm Cooper hovering over Cillian O’Connor in Gooch’s own backyard of Killarney, Mayo and Kerry return to another beloved playground of the Dr Crokes genius — Croke Park.

While O’Connor’s elevation to leading scorer in championship history triggered some unflattering and unfair comparisons with Cooper from some quarters, any assessment of the scoring charts and records that they’ve set and smashed illustrates just how much they have in common.

For one they both took to senior inter-county football and Croke Park like a duck to water.

At 19, Bernard Brogan, the sixth leading scorer in championship history, was recovering from both the disappointment of not making the Dublin minor team and then doing his cruciate injury; he would have to wait until he was 23 to make his championship debut, and 26 until he scored his first goal in the All-Ireland series.

John Doyle, fourth behind only O’Connor, Cooper and Mikey Sheehy in the all-time championship scoring records, never played minor for his county either. He was 22 beforegetting a call-up from Mick O’Dwyer.

Their first year straight out of minor, both Cooper and O’Connor had goaled in Croke Park and ended their rookie season as either anAll-Star or Young Player of the Year.

And scoring goals up there is something they would continuously — almost relentlessly — do foralmost a decade.

After both failing to find the net in their sophomore seasons — though O’Connor would retain his Young Player of the Year award — both would score at least one goal in HQ every season for the following five years.

Indeed, Cooper would stretch that to six years, jumping on Dublin right away in the 2009 All-Ireland quarter-final.

The only reason O’Connor didn’t was because last year, for the first time in his inter-county career, he and Mayo failed to make it to Croker and an All-Ireland semi-final.

Only one player this century has scored more goals than O’Connor in the All Ireland series — Cooper, on 11. O’Connor is currently stuck on 10. So this weekend he could again equal or even overtake in another scoring category.

And yet he has his critics, even haters. Going by some comments on social media last weekend. That he doesn’t do enough in the big games. That he doesn’t score enough from play. That he’s not even worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Cooper.

For sure he doesn’t have Cooper’s silky elusiveness and style — but then few do. Cooper has been the outstanding outfield player of this millennium, O’Connor will just about squeeze into the team of this decade.

And, of course, he has yet to win his All-Ireland.

But that’s about the only thing you can hold against him. His big-game record and scoring rate from play stacks up well with virtually anyone.

Take Michael Murphy. He has played almost the same number of championship games as O’Connor: the Donegal man has played 53, the Mayo man, 52. Like O’Connor, Murphy takes his team’s frees, though Paddy McBrearty, like Colm McFadden before him, has assumed those more suited for a naturally left-footed player.

Still, Murphy’s overall average is just 3.7 points per game, leaving him way back in 18th in the all-time championship scoring records, while O’Connor is now in first, averaging 6.8ppg.

Such a discrepancy can’t just be attributed to one player taking frees right across the width of the pitch and the other not, or Murphy spending so much time playing further out the field.

Indeed of the top 20 leading scorers in championship history, only Matt Connor, on seven points a game, averages more than O’Connor.

So, how is it O’Connor has consistently scored so much?Because he was merely fortuitous enough that the Mayo team of this decade must have won more frees in the scoring zone than any other team that has ever played the game?

Nope. For one, his scoring return from play is more than respectable. As Edwin McGreal of the Mayo News broke it down during the week, O’Connor has scored an average of 2.04 points from play per championship game, albeit a bit behind Gooch’s 2.65.

And contrary to the opinion that he’s merely a flat-track bully against the weaker teams in Connacht, his scoring return from play spikes any time he returns to Croke Park.

In 23 All-Ireland quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, O’Connor has scored 7-31 from play for an average of 2.3 points per game, considerably higher than his early championship return.

Plus, it’s not like all those frees are gimmes. Not everyone can take or be entrusted with them.

Same with penalties.

When O’Connor blazed a spot-kick over the bar in Killarney last week,it was his first miss in nine attempts in championship football. Every previous time, he nailed it.

And many of those were in big games — the 2014 drawn All-Ireland semi-final to go ahead of Kerry for the first time, or icing an injury-time penalty in front of 82,000 sets of eyes to force a semi-final replay with the Dubs in 2015.

Instead of the usual practice soof splitting scores from play and frees, or the even more common and lazy practice of just throwing them in together, we’ve come up with a formula that we’ll call theFinishers Index.

A point from a play = 1 pt.

A point from a free or ’45 = 0.33, considering at least one in three of them would have the difficulty of scoring one from play; if they’re so straightforward, why aren’t you taking them?

A goal from play = 3 points.

And a goal from a penalty carries a weighting of 1.5, factoring in the level of difficulty and responsibility that goes with stepping up to take one.

So let’s apply it to Cooper. He scored 23-154 from play in 84 games. That’s 223 points. Divide his 129 points then from frees into three and that gives you an extra 43 points, for a combined tally of 266. Which leaves you with a Finishers Index average of 3.17 ppg.

On to O’Connor. Currently he’s scored 15-61 from play in 52 championship games for a total of 106 points. Factor in his 8-236 from deadballs then and that gives you an extra 91 points. In all that’s 197 points, 69 still behind Gooch. But Gooch played 32 games more.

O’Connor’s Finishers Index average is considerably superior, with 3.8ppg.

That’s a stunning return, greater than anyone else in championship football this millennium.

And to think the Ballintubber man is still just 27, albeit with as many miles done as anyone has by 27.

There’s someone though who might leave both O’Connor and Gooch well behind by the time he’s finished.

Like the two leading scorers in championship history, David Clifford broke onto the senior scene at 19, goalled in Croke Park in his first summer up there, and ended that rookie season with a statuette from All-Star night.

And right now his scoring record in his sophomore season is considerably superior to theirs, at least from play. Seven points he kicked last week against Mayo, and the only one of them that wasn’t from play was THAT sideline kick.

In his eight championship matches to date he has scored 4-32 in total.3-26 of that has come from play, for an astonishing average of 4.38 ppg.

Apply The Finishers Index and that averages goes out to 4.8. A full point more than O’Connor and 33% more than Gooch.

Sure, his sample size is still very small compared to the body of work of the two leading men in championship scoring history.

And with Sean O’Shea likely to share freetaking duties with him for the next decade, he might never average or score more than O’Connor, whatever about Gooch.

But as a Finisher, Clifford appears to be the future and the present.