After Joe Canning curled over a sweet sideline cut on Sunday, I thought it would be a good time to review the number of cuts scored so far in 2010:
4 points Joe Canning Galway
3 points Alan McCrabbe Dublin
1 points Ger Farragher Galway
1 points Richie Foley Waterford
1 points Shane O’Sullivan Waterford
1 points Zane Keenan Laois
That makes 11 which is the same as was scored last year. Hopefully the semi-finals and finals will yield a few more.
After my rant about the inaccurate reporting of match stats by newspapers and GAA.ie I was contacted by a “national GAA writer” who made some valid points in defence of the fourth estate. Namely that the press box in Croker is actually 7 floors up! Which makes it tricky to identify players. I imagine that this is exacerbated by the mandatory use of helmets. Heck, while watching on telly I sometimes have trouble identifying the one and only John Mullane. Secondly journalists are actually writing match reports while the game is in progress so that they can meet their deadlines. Scores come thick and fast in hurling compared to a lot fo other sports and this makes their job a whole lot trickier.
Ultimately the blame lies with the GAA. The are the guardians and keepers of the games and should publish full and accurate stats after each match. According to this article “a journalist has been assigned to the GAA.ie and will feed information during the summer as match reports are filed”. Why can’t this person be responsible for ensuring the stats are right….
I personally don’t believe these are valid points regarding the defense of the inaccurate reporting of match stats by newspapers and GAA.ie.
Firstly these are professional writers who are paid to watch and report on the game I love. I assume these writers are constantly watching hurling like me so therefore they should easily be able to identify our top hurlers by their helmet type, jersey number and all round physique.
These journalists are under pressure and time constraints granted, but if they are in a press box can they not confirm with some of the many other journalists present - “hey who scored that?”
I don’t get it, there simply should be no margin for error here, these are professional people who should pride themselves on the accuracy of their writing on the game we love.