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2015 All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Analysis:

 

The season in numbers - 20 facts:

 

Introduction:

 

At the start of the 2015 Hurling Championship season, we at Ar an taobh líne agreed to analyse some Munster Championship games in conjunction with the SportsEgo Munster Fantasy GAA game. After covering a number of Munster Championship hurling games, we felt it was worthwhile to continue gathering data on the wider Senior Hurling Championship to analyse what trends and patterns emerged. 28 Senior Hurling Championship games were analysed, where teams had a chance of progressing to the knock out stages (data from Ulster SHC was not analysed for this reason).
 

Scores and disciplinary data (cards) were gathered for each of the 28 games played. 10 of the 28 games were then analysed in greater detail to provide more additional information (Puck outs, Turnovers, Shooting Efficiency % etc.).


Although, the 2015 Senior Hurling Championship was not the most memorable of recent years, it still had enough drama to keep everyone captivated between the months of May and September! Below, we will walk through some findings that may be of interest to many hurling supporters.


 

20 facts:
 

  • In the 10 games analysed in detail, the team that had more shots per game won in 80% of games (8/10). Interestingly, the 2 exceptions were the Munster SHC Final and All Ireland SHC Final!!
     

  • In the 28 Championship games, the team that led at half time went onto win 75% of games outright (21/28). Incidentally, the All Ireland SHC was also 1 of the 7 games where this did not hold true either. Of the 28 games played, the largest half time lead that was turned around was Laois’ 5 point lead over Antrim in the Leinster SHC Qualifiers. Laois came back to win eventually by 1 point.
     

  • In the 8 games where puck outs were analysed in detail, the winners of Puck outs did not have a huge bearing on the outright results of games. In 50% of games, the team that won the puck out battle went on to win the game. Similarly, in 63% of games the team that won the Breaking Ball battle (broken Puck outs) did not win the game! This would probably go against conventional thinking that winning the Puck out battle is a critical factor to winning games.
     

  • In the 8 games where fouls were analysed in detail, there was an average of 20.63 frees in each Senior Hurling game analysed.
     

  • In the 10 games where shooting was analysed in detail, there was an average of 75.5 shots in each game, more than 1 per minute.
     

  • In the 10 games where shooting was analysed in detail, the Shooting Efficiency from 65’s was 92.31% (24 from 26) across the 10 games reviewed. The only teams to miss 65’s were Limerick (1) and Galway (1)!
     

  • In the 10 games where shooting was analysed in detail, Shooting Efficiency from frees was 79.87% (119/149) across the 10 games reviewed. Kilkenny had the highest Shooting Efficiency from frees at 100% (12 from 12) in the 2 games we reviewed (All Ireland Semi Final and Final).
     

  • In the 10 games where shooting was analysed in detail, the average Shooting Efficiency from play was 48.10%. Interestingly and in line with what we would have expected, this is significantly lower than the Shooting Efficiency percentages for Frees and 65’s.
     

  • In the 10 games where shooting was analysed in detail, Cork hurlers had the highest overall Shooting Efficiency at 62.86%. The issue for Cork however was that they created the 2nd lowest number of scoring chances per game (35 scoring chances per game).
     

  • In the 28 Championship games, the total scored was 10 goals and 1064 points with 71% of scores coming from play (74-699). The breakdown of scores was as follows:

  • In the 28 Championship games, substitutes contributed 8% of scores when introduced. Interestingly when further broken down, Substitutes were responsible for 15% of goals scored (12/80) and 6.7% of points scored (72/1064) in the 28 game Senior Hurling championship.
     

  • In the 28 Championship games, the average winning margin was 8 points. The average half time margin was just less than 5 points.
     

  • In the 28 Championship games, there was an average of 2.85 goals per game.

    • Only 3 of the 28 games played ended goalless (11% of games).

    • Offaly were the only team not to score a Championship goal in the 2015.

    • Goals are also more likely to be scored in the 2nd half (54% - 43/80) as opposed to the 1st half (46% - 37/80).

    • Interestingly, the number of Goals per game decreased as the 2015 Championship progressed from the Leinster Qualifiers through to the All-Ireland Knockout series.

  • In the 10 games where shooting was analysed in detail, 63 goal chances were created, with 25 converted (39.68%). Limerick created the joint highest number of goal chances per game (5), but had the lowest conversion rate at 20%! Tipperary also created an average of 5 per game but had a conversion rate of 46.67%.
     

  • In the 28 Championship games, only 1 game ended in a draw (3.57%). This was the Leinster SHC Quarter final between Galway and Dublin.
     

  • In the 28 Championship games, a total of 335 players participated. The breakdown of players used by county is as follows:

  • In the 28 Championship games, just 0-08 was scored from sideline cuts (0.61% of all scores). The 8 points were scored by 5 different players:

    • Austin Gleeson (Waterford) - 0-02

    • Joe Canning (Galway) - 0-02

    • Zane Keenan (Laois) - 0-02

    • Diarmuid Byrne (Carlow) - 0-01

    • Derek McNicholas (Westmeath) - 0-01
       

  • In the 28 Championship games, 80 goals were scored in total. 74 goals came from play (92.5%), 5 goals came from the penalty spot (6.25%), with 1 goal coming from a free (1.25%).
     

  • In the 28 Championship games, 11 Red Cards were handed out in 6 different games (21% of games). Interestingly, in games where 1 red card is handed out, there was a 50% chance that additional cards would be shown afterwards! 
     

  • Kilkenny went through the 2015 Championship season unbeaten (4 wins from 4), while also accumulating the highest Scoring Difference/Average Winning Margin.

Conclusion:
 

It is important to note is that the analysis conducted, was based on a very small subset of data gathered during the 2015 Senior Hurling Championship season. To gain a more accurate insight into the different metrics, it would be necessary to add at least another 2-3 seasons of data.
 

Team Tackle count data per game was not gathered during the course of the 2015 Hurling Championship. The Tackles metric gives an excellent indication of game intensity and would be especially interesting when compared with the number of shots per game, where an inversely proportional relationship would be expected.
 

In future analysis, Penalty conversion rates would also be a valuable metric to analyse in greater detail, especially given the changes in the Hurling Penalty taking rules in recent years.
 

Lastly, we hope that you enjoyed this analysis feature and please feel free to forward the link to anybody that may find this interesting. We would also be happy to field any questions so please do not hesitate to contact us with your queries or feedback.

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