By John Considine
Hurling is a game that rewards fair play and penalises foul play. Evidence to support this statement comes from the 11 games in the 2022 Munster Senior Hurling Championship.
A game of hurling in 2022, at the highest level, involves approximately 124 passages of play. Every game has two passages of play that start with the referee throwing in the ball, i.e. one per half. Every game has two passages of play that ends with the referee signalling that the 35-minute half has ended. Nearly all passages of play end with either (i) the ball leaving the field of play, or (ii) a player engaging in unfair (foul) play. The start of the next passage of play depends on how the previous play has ended. Restarts after the ball has left the field of play dominate, i.e. puckouts, sidelines, and 65m shots. The distribution of 2022 restarts in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship are presented below.
A game of hurling in 2022, at the highest level, involves approximately 124 passages of play. Every game has two passages of play that start with the referee throwing in the ball, i.e. one per half. Every game has two passages of play that ends with the referee signalling that the 35-minute half has ended. Nearly all passages of play end with either (i) the ball leaving the field of play, or (ii) a player engaging in unfair (foul) play. The start of the next passage of play depends on how the previous play has ended. Restarts after the ball has left the field of play dominate, i.e. puckouts, sidelines, and 65m shots. The distribution of 2022 restarts in the Munster Senior Hurling Championship are presented below.
While puckouts, frees, sidelines, and 65m shots are all uncontested restarts, they differ in terms of (a) their location and (b) the type of ball strike permitted. Puckouts are from one’s own endline. The ball is struck from the hand. Sidelines are taken from the non-scoring sides of the rectangular field. The ball is struck from the ground. A 65m shot is one that is taken from a line that is parallel to the endline and 65m from the scoring goal. The player will lift the ball with his stick, toss it in the air, and strike it. A free for unfair play is normally struck in a similar fashion to a 65m (the player can opt to strike it like a sideline). These shots can be awarded anywhere on the field except within 20m of the endline of the defending team.
Puckouts may dominate in terms of quantity but there is a strong case to suggest that hurling is a game of fair play. Economists might say that there is a lot of incentive compatibility. The biggest costs are imposed on teams who do not play the game as it is intended. Teams are most likely to incur a score against themselves when they concede a 65m (touch the ball over their own endline outside the scoring zone similar to a soccer team conceding a corner). Over 70% of these were converted in the 2022 MSHC (although these are rare events as shown above). Where a team is penalised for unfair or foul play then the resulting free produces a score approximately 65% of the time. This percentage increases by about 10% for frees that are within range of the scoring area (see previous post). The picture below illustrates the likelihood of a score resulting from a particular restart.
Puckouts may dominate in terms of quantity but there is a strong case to suggest that hurling is a game of fair play. Economists might say that there is a lot of incentive compatibility. The biggest costs are imposed on teams who do not play the game as it is intended. Teams are most likely to incur a score against themselves when they concede a 65m (touch the ball over their own endline outside the scoring zone similar to a soccer team conceding a corner). Over 70% of these were converted in the 2022 MSHC (although these are rare events as shown above). Where a team is penalised for unfair or foul play then the resulting free produces a score approximately 65% of the time. This percentage increases by about 10% for frees that are within range of the scoring area (see previous post). The picture below illustrates the likelihood of a score resulting from a particular restart.
The fact that sidelines are more likely to result in a score than puckouts surprised me a little. But it is in keeping with the idea that the rules of the game should encourage players to play. This is further illustrated by the picture below. The picture illustrates the benefits of being awarded an uncontested strike. Direct scores from sidelines and free shots have been removed (see previous post on sidelines). The picture illustrates the benefits of having control of the restart. The ratio of own to opposition scores resulting from a team’s restart is presented. In all cases the ratio is above 1. It is of benefit to have the restart. In other words, there is a cost to the team who put the ball out of play. But here is the beauty of it, the cost is lowest when a team puts the ball out of play when attempting to score.
And it gets even better if one separates successful scoring attempts from unsuccessful scoring attempts. The return from a puckout after the opposition has scored is lower than when the opposition has missed (possibly due to the fact that the referee needs time to record the score and, therefore, ruling out a quick puckout).
On these numbers, hurling is a game of fair play.
On these numbers, hurling is a game of fair play.
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