Sideline Snippets - All-Ireland Final Special

Sideline Snippets is www.gaa.ie's sideways look at all things in the world of GAA! Catch it every week on the site throughout the summer.

Dancing around the Issue

When award-winning actor and Dublin football supporter Colm Meaney (The Commitments, The Snapper, Con Air) bumped into TG4 presenter and Kerry fan Daithí Ó Sé at the IFTA awards in February, the conversation, almost inevitably, drifted onto a subject matter close to their hearts – football.

Emboldened by Dublin’s run to the All-Ireland semi-final the previous year and Kerry’s poor form in 2010, Meaney suggested that Dublin would dearly love to play the Kingdom in this year’s final. Indeed, the Finglas native was bold enough to suggest that the Dubs would ‘hockey’ their great rivals in the final.

Ó Sé’s pithy response was as follows: “The only thing ye will bate us at is set dancing!”

Take Your Point

With 75 Championship appearances to his name, Tom O’Sullivan is the second most experienced player in the Kerry squad, one behind team-mate Tomás Ó Sé and just six shy of the all-time mark held by Darragh Ó Sé.
However, in the 12 campaigns since he made his debut in the 2000 Munster Championship against Cork, the Rathmore man has managed just a solitary point. That, by our calculations, is a scoring average of 0.013 points per game. Compare that to the prolific Colm Cooper, who has scored 17-216 in 64 Championship games for an average of 4.17 points per Championship game.

O’Sullivan, 32, has also made 75 League appearances for the Kingdom, having made his debut in 1999, but is yet to score in the competition. That makes a grand total of one point in 150 League and Championship games for a scoring average of 0.0066 points per game.

16 is the magic number

When it comes to the number of scores needed to win a GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final, it appears that in recent years that 16 is the magic number. The last four All-Ireland finals have been won by the team that managed to kick 16 scores in the game. Cork and Kerry hit exactly 16 points to win the 2010 and 2009 finals respectively, while Tyrone notched 1-15 in beating Kerry in 2008 and the Kingdom kicked 3-13 a year earlier in beating the Rebels.

Cork 0-16 Down 0-15, 2010
Kerry 0-16 Cork 1-9, 2009
Tyrone 1-15 Kerry 0-14, 2008
Kerry 3-13 Cork 1-9, 2007

Experience deficit

Based on the 31 players profiled in the media guide produced by Kerry ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland final, there is a staggering total of 65 All-Ireland medals in the Kerry squad. Between them, Tomás Ó Sé, Tom O’Sullivan and Tommy Griffin have amassed 15 Celtic Crosses.

Those stats could make difficult reading for Dublin, who, as we know, do not have a single players in their current squad with an All-Ireland medal in their possession.

Third time lucky for Tipperary Minors?

The last time Tipperary won a Minor football title was in 1934. They have appeared in the final only twice since – 1955 and 1984 and lost to Dublin on both occasions. The score in 1955 was Dublin 5-4 Tipperary 2-7 and in 1984 it was Dublin 1-9 Tipperary 0-4. Can Tipp make it third time lucky against the Dubs on Sunday?

Top Scorers

Going into Sunday’s All-Ireland final, early pace setter Ben Brosnan of Wexford still leads the way at the top of the scoring charts on 0-32. However, Colm Cooper of Kerry and Dublin’s Bernard Brogan are hot on his heels, with Cooper, especially, poised to take over at the top of the table by 5.15pm on Sunday afternoon.

Cooper is in second place on 1-27 (27), just five points back. The 28-year-old, as outlined above, has a scoring average of 4.17 in his 64 Championship appearances to date for Kerry while this year he has improved that average to 5.14, so if the Dr. Crokes man continues in that vein he should overtake Brosnan.

Remarkably, Cooper has top scored in five finals in his career to date, including the 2009, ’08, ’07 and ’05 deciders as well as the 2004 replay.