As it started, so it finished. Division Two of this year’s Allianz Football League attracted plaudits for its high-scoring entertainment on opening weekend, averaging 35.2 per match compared with the national average of 30.3. By the end of the campaign, the figures for the division were still the best in the league, averaging more than 36 points a match against an average of 33.2.
There were also more two-pointers kicked than in the other divisions. After the fifth round of matches, the division was averaging 6.4 two-pointers a match when the average was 4.2.
Even when the FRC tweaks were introduced for the following series of fixtures, creating an expectation that these enhanced scores for kicks from 40 metres or farther would decrease because goalkeepers would no longer be creating an extra man to manipulate space around the 40-metre arc the numbers didn’t fall in the second tier.
If anything, the disparity grew. In Divisions One, Three and Four, the average did fall to 2.8, 2.7 and 2.5 respectively but Division Two was serenely unaffected, returning as big an average as ever during the campaign, at 7.8.
In one of the division’s big matches in round six, Meath v Monaghan, the amended rule removing the possibility of the goalkeeper coming up to create a 12v11 imbalance was introduced.
“When I get up, I’m not coming up to keep the ball. I want to come up and contribute and try and get the ball forward.”
— Rory Beggan
It made little difference to Monaghan’s goalkeeper Rory Beggan, who continued to break forward – requiring an additional defender to drop back into his half – as he had done before the 3v3 was changed to 4v3. Yet overall, the goalkeepers’ involvement collapsed across all divisional fixtures.
Beggan commented that he didn’t see himself as part of the problem, ie someone who came up to provide merely an additional outlet for handpassing.
“When I get up, I’m not coming up to keep the ball. I want to come up and contribute and try and get the ball forward.”
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The Monaghan ‘keeper isn’t typical but his desire to keep contributing up front was characteristic of the division. His team ended up promoted and with Roscommon who they face in Saturday’s Division Two final, will go straight back up to the top level next season, having last year come to the end of what had been a 10-year tenancy.
Despite the immediate return of the relegated counties, the division was very competitive and two teams, Meath and Cavan had it within their own hands to secure promotion ahead of Roscommon on the final day.
Former All-Ireland referee Maurice Deegan, an FRC member, put it like this: “Division Two has provided major entertainment: more two-pointers nearly every week and higher scoring.”
Why was that the case?
Another FRC member with a direct link to the situation is Colm Collins, the former Clare manager, who operated in Division Two with the county for a number of years.
“I suppose the immediate thing that jumps to mind is that it’s very competitive and the other thing is that most teams fancy themselves to beat other teams. It’s not a case of, uh-oh, we’re playing against a really good team here; we’ve got to keep it tidy. Most teams would fancy themselves to beat the team they’re playing.
“You’re also aspiring to play in the Sam Maguire and need a decent finish in the table. So that’s always in the back of your head and it’s probably pushing your performances more than anything else. It is definitely a factor.
“So maybe that’s another reason. I think that it’s a very even standard, Division Two. I think that you might get one, maybe an odd year, you get a team down there that probably should be in Division One but other than that, it’s very well contested.”
His reference to counties who don’t really belong in Division Two is based on the most recent two seasons, which have seen the eventual All-Ireland winners, Dublin and Armagh, spend the spring in the second tier as well as both years’ Ulster champions, Derry and Donegal.
This year, although the relegated counties have bounced straight back up, few expect Monaghan or Roscommon to make that sort of impact in the championship. One point of view from a county involved is that you could play the whole season again and end up with entirely different placings.
This competitiveness explains why there was nobody giving up on the campaign and matches were very tight – to the point that on the final day, the top three counties failed to defeat the bottom three.
Monaghan were top scorers (193) not alone in the division but in the whole league. Second were Kerry (170) from Division One and four counties came in joint-third, with 162, Division Three table toppers Kildare and three from Division Two: third-place Meath plus, strangely, the two relegated counties Westmeath and Down.
The division also featured contested kick-out stats that consistently beat the average.
Former All-Ireland-winning Kerry manager and FRC member Éamonn Fitzmaurice believes that the high scoring could be a confluence of circumstances, peculiar to the division.
“I would have referenced the competitive element as well but as well as that, without wanting to sound disparaging or anything like that, is it almost at the perfect point of a bell curve that you have the correct amount of competitiveness and a good level of execution skills but maybe not the absolute highest level of intensity?
“In the lower half of the league, you’ve more mistakes and the technical quality might not be as good and in Division One then, theoretically anyway, you should have the highest level of technically proficient players but also high levels of defensive pressure.
“Is it just a perfect storm of competitiveness in Division Two mixed with scoring forwards and slightly looser play for want of a better word that produces those kind of situations?”
