Black card rule=more scores

October 02, 2014

Mayo's Cillian O'Connor scores a penalty past Kerry goalkeeper Brian Kelly
©INPHO

Statistics released by the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) show that the average number of points scored per game in this year's football championship was 9.5 per cent higher than last year.

The CCCC's findings also show that there was an average of five less frees awarded per game in 2014 compared to previous years and that less than one black card per championship game was brandished on average.

The statement in full is:

• The 2014 Football Championships have set a record for the number of scores recorded in a single season.
• With the introduction of the black card, the average number of points per game in the 2014 championship is roughly 9.5% higher than in 2013; the number of points scored has increased by just shy of five points per game since 2010.
• There were over five less frees on average per game awarded in the 2014 championship in comparison with previous years.
• On average, slightly less than one black card per Championship game has been shown in 2014 - figures consistent with the numbers shown per game in this year's Allianz Football Leagues
• In keeping with the trend witnessed in the Allianz leagues, the total number of cards shown for disciplinary reasons has decreased dramatically with in the region of 40% less cards being shown for disciplinary reasons in 2014.

Cards per game: The number of disciplinary cards shown to players in this year's Championships has fallen dramatically with just 4.32 cards shown per game in 2014 (Black, Yellow and Red cards combined) as opposed to 7.35 per game in the 2013 Championship (Yellow & Red cards combined) and a high of eight per game in 2010.

The instance of black cards shown has been less than one per game played, while the number of yellow cards shown in 2014 was effectively half of the number shown during the 2014 Championship. All of these figures are consistent with the trends witnessed in the Allianz leagues since the introduction of the Black Card.

Scores per Game: The number of scores per championship game has increased by roughly 9.5% since the introduction of the new Black Card rule for cynical behaviour fouls. In the 2014 Championships, the total aggregate scores (goals and points combined) per game played was 34.92 - this represented an increase of three points per game from both this year's Allianz Leagues and from the 2013 Football Championships.

The instance of goals scored rose from 1.98 per game in the 2013 Championships to 2.34 per game in 2014 with the number of white flags being raised increasing by almost 2 per game.


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