AS they head toward Saturday night’s second provincial semi-final against Down, it’s Monaghan’s Karl O’Connell that heads The Irish News statistical player performance leaderboard.
The Tyholland wing-back’s displays against Fermanagh and most notably Cavan the last day out propel him ahead of a chasing pack made up largely of his own team-mates and Tyrone players.
The leaderboard, compiled by Performa Sports personnel for The Irish News and www.irishnews.com, is arrived at by studying a series of statistics of every player from every game in this year’s Ulster Championship.
The vital stats studied range from Possessions, Tackles, Turnovers Won, Attacks
Total Shots, etc, etc right through to Accuracy, Assists and other key elements of play during each game.
O’Connell, whose move from midfield back to the half-back line seems to have benefited Malachy O’Rourke’s side, heads the list from Mattie Donnelly.
The versatile Trillick man statistically stood out a mile in Sunday’s breathtaking victory over Donegal, while the performances of Peter Harte, Tiernan McCann and Colm Cavanagh – who was The Irish News’ star man on the day – propel them up the rankings.
The top 22 players represent just three counties and Fermanagh’s Ryan McCluskey is the only player outside the perceived ‘big three’ to make it on to the list.
Michael Murphy is the highest ranking player for a Donegal side that now faces a treacherous journey through the qualifiers.
Monaghan have the biggest representation with eight players on the leaderboard, followed by seven from Donegal and six from Tyrone.
Conor McManus, with 55 points, is the highest recognised out-and-out forward on the list, while goalkeepers Niall Morgan (Tyrone) and Mark Anthony McGinley (Donegal) are both included after impressive displays on Sunday.
