Sharpshooters: Cork's tally of 14-95 wasn't enough to be top scorers in the league

IT would make a great quiz question down the line. Who pipped Cork to be the highest-scoring team in the 2023 football league?

The Rebels finished with a grand tally of 14 goals and 95 points (137) but fell three points short of the most unlikely winners. Who are they?

I’ll give you a clue. They are not from Division 1, or 2 or 3 for that matter. They compete in Connacht and could make the final up west, thereby qualifying for the All-Ireland and competing for the Sam Maguire Cup.

Give up? Ok. It’s Leitrim. Yep, Lovely Leitrim scored more than any of the other 31 teams contesting the four divisions and before you scoff or cast your eyes to the Heavens take this on board. Cork could be in their four-team group this summer.

Anyway, Leitrim can rightly boast of scoring 13 goals and 101 points (140) though losing out on promotion on the last day, finishing fifth after being pipped by table toppers Sligo by a point, 1-15 to 2-11, when they needed to win.

What it does, though, is create a fascinating story coming down the tracks once the Connacht championship gets up and running next Saturday, when Leitrim head to the Big Apple to play New York in the quarter-final.

It’s a proverbial banana skin for the visitors, who are favourites to progress to the semi-final against either London or Sligo and all the indicators point to a Leitrim-Sligo re-match with such high stakes at play.

Granted, whoever emerges is likely to get thumped by either Galway/Mayo/Roscommon in the final, but that won’t matter because they’ll have ticked a major box in joining the elite in the race for Sam.

DEADLY

Cork’s second-placed billing was due in the main to the scoring exploits of their five main finishers led by Steven Sherlock, who posted 0-32, comprising 0-20 from frees and 0-2 from 45s from his five appearances in the seven-game programme.

Captain Brian Hurley, who also sat out a couple of games, was next in line with 1-16, 0-7 from frees and two ‘marks’ followed by leading goal-scorer Sean Powter with 4-3, having started all seven games.

Chris Óg Jones, who also made the line-up throughout, contributed 0-12 the same as rookie Conor Corbett, whose 2-6 is remarkable in that the Clyda Rovers star only started in two games and was introduced in four others.

Interestingly, in the Division 2 scoring charts, Sherlock filled in second behind Derry’s Shane McGuigan, who finished with 2-36 while Hurley was joint seventh along with another Derry forward, Niall Toner, who scored 3-10 and Louth’s Sam Mulroy, who totalled 0-19.

On the team charts, Westmeath came in third two points behind Cork, also scoring 14 goals but their 93 points (135) came up just shy.

The Leinster county finished fourth in Division 3 while Mayo were next with nine goals and 99 points (126) when topping the Division 1 table and contesting the final against Galway at Croke Park tomorrow.

The main lesson to be learned from all of this is that defence is just as important and possibly even more, when analysing the package in its entirety, like Cork conceding those three goals in the opening match against Meath yet rebounding to hit Limerick for six.

Cork’s 14 goals were spread among eight players. 

Apart from Powter’s quartet, there were two apiece for Corbett, Mattie Taylor and Ian Maguire with Hurley, Cathail O’Mahony, who has opted to play for UCC in the county championship, Eoghan McSweeney and Colm O’Callaghan also hitting the net.

Cork had six players who were ever-present starters ranging from keeper Micheál Aodh Martin to centre-back Rory Maguire, midfielders Ian Maguire and O’Callaghan and Powter and Jones in attack while another half-dozen lined-up in the same number of games.

Notably, five of those were in defence, including a full-back line of Maurice Shanley, Daniel O’Mahony and Tommy Walsh, wing-back Luke Fahy and half-forward Eoghan McSweeney.

Clonakilty’s Shanley missed out on completing the set after sustaining a hamstring injury during training in the week of the last game against Derry while a red card in the defeat by Louth meant O’Mahony was suspended last weekend.