The top scorer (from both play and placed balls) in the 2008 All-Ireland Senior Hurling championship was Waterford’s Eoin Kelly. Kelly scored a total of 7-43 (64 points in 5 matches) which put him 25 points ahead of his nearest challenger, Galway’s Joe Canning (39 points in 3 matches). Kelly’s success was largely due to his superb goal scoring rate this year; he scored 7 goals and managed at least 1 goal in every game he played. That was quite a change from his form in 2007 when Kelly only scored 1 goal and 9 points in the same amount of matches.

Unfortunately for Waterford, Kelly’s increased scoring rate was matched by the downturn in the fortunes of the top scorer of 2007, Dan Shanahan. Shanahan clocked up 8-12 in 2007 but only 1-5 in 2008. As a result he dropped all the way to number 35 in the 2008 top scorers list.

Joe Canning lived up the hype to come in second position in his debut year in senior inter-county hurling. Galway’s early exit from the championship prevented the hurling public from seeing if he could continue his scoring exploits.  Next year, with Galway competing in the Leinster championship, hopefully we will see more of the Portumna man.

In joint third place in the scoring charts was Henry Shefflin (38 points in 4 matches). Shefflin had another excellent year for the Cats.  Considering that he suffered a serious knee injury in the 2007 All-Ireland final, this makes his 2008 achievement more impressive. The majority of his scores came from placed balls; he scored only 6 points from play this year but significantly 3 of those came in the semi-final and 2 in the final. Shefflin has been in the top three in the scoring charts for the last 5 years. His record reads:

2008 Joint 3rd place (38 points)
2007 2nd place (47 points)
2006 1st place (53 points)
2005 3rd place (46 points)
2004 1st place (62 points)

Shefflin really sets the benchmark for all other hurling forwards.

In joint third with Shefflin was Dublin’s David O’Callaghan (38 points in 4 matches). O’Callaghan returned to the Dublin hurling panel after spending a number of years concentrating on football and he had a excellent championship. He scored 2-14 from play and 0-18 from frees. Hopefully O’Callaghan will stay with the small ball game in 2009.

The full list of top scorers for 2008 is here.