Hurling Tactics: Clare spread the workload, Wexford share the scoring burden
11 June 2022; Conor O'Keeffe of Kerry in action against Conor McDonald and Jack O'Connor of Wexford during the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Preliminary Quarter-Final match between Kerry and Wexford at Austin Stack Park in Tralee, Kerry. Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile
Clare ended the Munster Championship having used nearly 30 different hurlers. This was driven by the luxury of playing Waterford with a Munster Final place guaranteed.
Laois, on the other hand, were forced to chop and change as they rolled players in and out of the treatment room throughout their doomed Leinster Championship campaign.
At the other end of the table, Cork, Wexford and Limerick used a smaller selection pool. Darragh Egan’s first season saw him experiment during the league but stick to a core group of players in the championship with seven hurlers playing every minute of each game.
One of the legacies left in Wexford after the reign of Davy Fitzgerald was the ability and confidence of all players to attack and shoot. This trait has been carried on this season with 82% of the players who lined out for the Yellowbellies in the Leinster Championship scoring from play.
Limerick have also adjusted tactics this year with more defenders looking to shoot from distance with four of their regular six backs raising white flags in the Munster Championship.
One interesting metric of a player's effectiveness is his involvement in shots taken during the game. That's a total of the player’s own shots from play plus assists (scoreable frees won and passes to an eventual shooter).
The surprise leader is young Cathal O'Neill from Limerick. At only 20, he has slotted comfortably into the half-forward line of the All-Ireland champions and been hugely influential.
On the other end of the career arc is Conor Lehane, who made his Championship debut for Cork when O'Neill was just nine. Lehane has been driving Cork’s attack this year, topping their shot involvements in the Munster clashes with Limerick Waterford and Tipperary.
Unsurprisingly, some of the top hurlers of the game make the top 10, with Tony Kelly, Conor Whelan, Rory O Connor and Gearoid Hegarty all featuring. Interesting to note too that the top nine hurlers on the list are still playing for the Liam MacCarthy and will be targeted by opposition defences over the coming weeks.
Who is winning the frees or putting the sliotar in the hand of the eventual shooter. The surprise leader of this metric is Kilkenny’s John Donnelly who has only seen 143 minutes of hurling. When played he has created more shots than any other hurler.
One of the most underrated hurlers in the Limerick squad is David Reidy, who plays the role of impact sub better than anyone. Reidy plays a key role in pushing Limerick over the line when he enters the field with 50+ minutes on the clock. The Dromin-Athlacca man was given a rare start in Ennis a few weeks ago and contributed five shot assists that led to 0-4.
The game is still driven by the scorers! The guys with the mettle to finish under Championship pressure. Which hurler gives the most bang for his buck? Who scores the most points for every shot they take?
Top of the list stands Kilkenny’s Mossy Keoghan who put Dublin to the sword in Parnell Park with 2-1 from three shots, then scored 1-1 from four shots against Wexford. Dessie Hutchison and Patrick Curran showed that Waterford had the firepower to compete with most teams, but supplying the key men became an issue as the weeks wore on.
One player who does need highlighting is Cathal Mannion. 18 points from 19 shots – with the majority of the shots coming from midfield. Mannion has proven himself the sharpest shooter in Ireland over multiple seasons. His near-sweeper role against Kilkenny left him too far from goal and with no shot from play in their Leinster Final loss, something Henry Shefflin may reflect on heading into their quarter-final.
One key statistic we like to track at GAA Insights is the target for each puckout. We aim to record who the keeper was trying to land the ball towards when taking a long puckout. From this, we can see which players are key to mark or disrupt if you are a defender facing an opposition puckout.
In this year’s provincial championships Ross King was the “go to” man for Laois. He was targeted just over nine times a game in his three appearances. Conor Cooney led the Galway puckout attack, his movement from centre forward to the wings has been where Eanna Murphy has aimed throughout the campaign. It is no surprise to see big men like Cha Dwyer, Kyle Hayes and Peter Duggan high up on the list.
The other side of the modern game sees goalkeepers pass short regularly to their defenders. The rate of short puckouts has consistently climbed each season and now each team must be prepared to take this option.
If the opposition feels your team is unsure or unprepared at short puckouts then they will sit deep, squeezing space in your half-forward line – cutting out long options, allowing your full back line to receive a puckout unmarked. Asking you to take the short option that they know you don’t like or want. So which players are used or trusted most with short puckouts?
Cork and Westmeath have two entries on this list as they use the short puckout regularly. Aoghus Clarke has been Westmeath’s main option with Cork using Sean O'Donoghue most. Craig Morgan and John Bellew’s debut seasons saw them as options to start attacks from their own defensive lines. Barry Nash’s evolution from forward to defender gives Limerick a ready-made confident ball carrier and his role as short puckout receiver has been key in big games.
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