Research flags modern explosion in hand-passing

A recently published study has revealed an explosion in long hand-passing sequences in Gaelic football.

By comparing the 10 All-Ireland senior finals from 1980 to 1989 with the 10 finals and semi-finals (including replays) between 2014 and ’16 using the Sportscode analysis system, researchers found that there are far longer hand-passing sequences in the modern gane.

The longest sequence of hand-passes strung together in the 1980s finals was seven, while in the 2014-16 period, researchers found moves totalling 16 passes.