Cork football's relegation battlers lack a leading scorer, the opposite of hurling

Last Friday in this columntarget="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">, we looked at how heavily Cork’s senior hurling clubs lean on their main man, and whether it had any bearing on their qualification status heading into the knockout phase of the top two grades in championship.

There were patterns that emerged – without having to grasp at too many straws – particularly among the sides condemned to the dreaded relegation playoffs.

For the four clubs with their status on the line in the top two grades, they averaged 44.5% reliance on one scorer, against roughly 32% for the teams that reached the knockouts.

Douglas (Shane Kingston, 55%) and Fermoy (Fionn Lardner, 50%) were the extreme cases for reliance on one individual shooter.

This week, we’re running the same exercise on the Premier Senior Football Championship and Senior A Football Championship following the conclusion of the group stages. And bizarrely, the results are almost completely inverted.

In football, the teams in relegation bother are those who haven’t relied on any one marquee forward.

The four relegation playoff sides of Ballincollig (Dara Dorgan, 25%), St Michael's (Adam Hennessy, 18%), O'Donovan Rossa (Kevin Davis, 25%) and Clyda Rovers (Cian O'Sullivan, 19%) average just under 22% reliance on their top scorer. The 12 club sides through to the knockout stage average around 28%.

Overall reliance is lower among football teams anyway, naturally enough when it’s considerably more difficult to score frees from range, though the two-point arc has bolstered the value of a long-distance sharpshooter. The percentages still, aren’t directly comparable.

St Michael’s have the lowest figure of any club between the top two grades, while Clyda sit marginally above. Both are under real pressure of facing the drop.

The teams flying at the top in football have been those generally more reliant on an individual, or at the very least, have had a leading figure. All of the Premier Senior clubs that have booked a place in the knockout phase bar one have seen over 25% of their scores come from one man.

Ross Corkey accounts for 33% of Nemo Rangers’ scores, Steven Sherlock the same for St Finbarr’s – though the Barrs limped through to the quarters – while Brian Hurley has 26% of Castlehaven’s total, and David Buckley has 27% of Newcestown’s scores.

Outlier

Clonakilty remain the only PSFC outlier – Conor Daly has scored 19% of their total – though they have the highest 'scores for' of any team across the top grade. Nothing wrong with spreading the scores when everyone up front is on form.

In Senior A, Grantas Bucinskas has hit 42% of Kanturk's scoring – the highest club figure in the football – and Kanturk topped their group unbeaten.

Kanturk, incidentally, are the one clear crossover between codes. Brian O'Sullivan has 43% of their hurling scores, and the Duhallow club are in the knockouts in both.

The player-usage numbers have a pattern too. Ballincollig have used 30 players across three games – comfortably the most in either code or grade – and they're in a relegation playoff. St Michael's used 26, second-most in the PSFC, and they’re joining them in the decider.

Clonakilty, meanwhile, qualified using just 18, and qualified clubs average 20.75 players used. For comparison: the eliminated clubs average 21.25, and the four relegation playoff sides average 25. Be it injuries or searching for form, rotation hasn’t served teams well thus far.

The Divisions/Colleges sides need a mention too, but they come with an asterisk and a dagger, given the small sample size. 

Beara and MTU boast 60% reliance from one game each, but Carbery – who reached the championship proper – had 23% reliance on top-scorer Damien Gore.