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Taken from the independent:

Kingdom give rival finalists a real kicking in handpass stakes

By Martin Breheny


Thursday July 22 2010

KERRY relied on the handpass more than any of their counterparts, according to match data from the four provincial football finals.

They were the undisputed handpass kings, slinging out between 39pc and 90pc more than the seven other finalists. That will come as a surprise to those who say Kerry use a more direct style than other counties.

It's a significant statement on Kerry's approach against Limerick, where they handpassed the ball 132 occasions -- 37 times more than their rivals. It was also 37 more than Tyrone used against Monaghan in the Ulster final.
Louth relied on the handpass less than any other provincial finalist, deploying it just 69 times against Meath (83). The lowest aggregate was in the Leinster final, which returned 152 handpasses, 12 fewer than Connacht where Roscommon-Sligo returned 164. Ulster had 189 and Munster 227.

The handpass has been under the spotlight since the experiments with the fisted pass last spring. They were thrown out at Congress, but a slight adjustment was made to the old format, requiring an upward striking motion. That proved controversial in the early stages of the championship as players complained about refereeing inconsistencies and while there are still occasional frustrations, things have settled down.

Overall, the number of handpasses was down by an average of 19 per game on last year's provincial finals. Whether that's due to the amended handpass or the individual styles of the competing counties, is difficult to assess.

Clean catching from kick-outs averaged just over four per county, with Monaghan best on seven and Sligo and Louth worst on one each. This was another area of experiment in the league where a 'mark' applied but like so many of the proposals, it was voted down at Congress.

Remarkably, Louth, who have highly rated midfielders in Paddy Keenan and Brian White, caught just one kick-out against Meath, which was also matched by Sligo. Tyrone proved that catching kick-outs is not necessary to construct an easy win as they managed just two, whereas Monaghan fielded seven in last Sunday's final.[/size]

As for shots at goal from outside the 20-metre line, the Connacht final was a clear winner with Roscommon and Sligo producing a total of 45, which was eight more than Meath-Louth, 13 more than Tyrone-Monaghan and 18 more than Kerry-Limerick.[/b]

Obviously proves the superiority of Connacht Football.

[Ball Hopper]

Shots taken or successful shots taken?

Big difference.

[nrico2006]

On top of that a more relevant and interesting statistic would be on which team has the most successful number of shots, not a combination of the two teams from a match as in the Ulster Final for example if there were 32 taken then I would imagine that the majority of these were by Tyrone. 

[Jinxy]

Not hard to score when the Monaghan lads roll out the red carpet for you!

[nrico2006]

Not hard to score when the Monaghan lads roll out the red carpet for you!

Alot harder than when the officials allow you to score a winning 'goal' via a touch down.

[Hardy]

Is it written somewhere in the annals of Mid-Ulster that the response to a statement like "it's a grand summery day today" has to be "what about the landslides in China?". Here's a chance to practice responding to the point. Ready?

Not hard to score when the Monaghan lads roll out the red carpet for you!

[armaghniac]

The Connacht final was a Shineing light in scoring terms.

[SuperDooperCooper]

More lazy journalism by the best in the business the Indo.
Take the stats from the provincial finals and draw sweeping conclusions based on the raw stats while ignoring all other factors.
There was a gale blowing in the Munster final; both teams had to work the ball up the field using hand-passing against the gale however the paper declared Kerry the hand pass kings.......
Why anyone reads the stuff they put out is beyond me......

[magpie seanie]

More lazy journalism by the best in the business the Indo.
Take the stats from the provincial finals and draw sweeping conclusions based on the raw stats while ignoring all other factors.
There was a gale blowing in the Munster final; both teams had to work the ball up the field using hand-passing against the gale however the paper declared Kerry the hand pass kings.......
Why anyone reads the stuff they put out is beyond me......

100% agree. Some of the stuff that passes for journalism is a joke but luckily for them there are countless idiots who happily gobble it up.

[From the Bunker]

More lazy journalism by the best in the business the Indo.
Take the stats from the provincial finals and draw sweeping conclusions based on the raw stats while ignoring all other factors.
There was a gale blowing in the Munster final; both teams had to work the ball up the field using hand-passing against the gale however the paper declared Kerry the hand pass kings.......
Why anyone reads the stuff they put out is beyond me......

100% agree. Some of the stuff that passes for journalism is a joke but luckily for them there are countless idiots who happily gobble it up.

ditto, lies, damn lies and statistics

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Shots taken or successful shots taken?

Big difference.

I know, I reposting this article being used on another thread to bash Kerry football, stats can prove or twist anything.

In the Mayonews one of the regional papers in Mayo, they use these kind of states in little a little interesting facts section, it is not condidered worthwhile for the main articles, its sad the national media thinks stats worthy as stand alone articles. Its one thing us useing it here on a forum, but paid journalists should be capable of more.

[magickingdom]

Shots taken or successful shots taken?

Big difference.

I know, I reposting this article being used on another thread to bash Kerry football, stats can prove or twist anything.

In the Mayonews one of the regional papers in Mayo, they use these kind of states in little a little interesting facts section, it is not condidered worthwhile for the main articles, its sad the national media thinks stats worthy as stand alone articles. Its one thing us useing it here on a forum, but paid journalists should be capable of more.

stats are very important if read right. any stat that tells you mayo can kick points needs to be treated with extreme caution  mayo would have many all irelands over the years if they could kick points.

on a serious note roscommon came from no where to win the connacht final on the back of one mr shine, meath have gone so far on the back of cian ward. its sad that one accurate forward can change a teams fortunes but thats amateur gaelic football for you (and before anyone starts looking at the aussie ability to kick a round ball vs ours 2 years ago). no wonder kerry with so many good forwards have dominated gf for the last 10 years