Applying common sense to wide count

Inspired by Michael Lewis’s Moneyball, Rob Carroll has taken to crunching the numbers in GAA — but discovered one manager’s fish is another’s foul when it comes to stats.

When it comes to numbers in the GAA I have a well-worn obsession which regular readers will be distressingly familiar with.

When is a wide not a wide? If a forward drops the ball over the end-line near the corner-flag is that the same as screwing the ball wide from inside the square? Does it count as a wide? Nerdish I know, but it’s what some of us have instead of a social life.