GAA Match Programmes – July 27, 2019

That type of shot would have
given Rowland less reaction
time to make the save because
he would have had to move his
hurley back across his body.
Yet if Rowland had studied
Forde’s penalty striking pattern,
he would surely have known
that Forde was likely to go to
his other side. Forde did but
Rowland still got nowhere near
it.

Forde is fairly predictable in
where he hits his penalties but
he still always backs himself
because of the power and
accuracy he can generate from
the strike. Going to Rowland’s
right would have suited the
Laois goalkeeper further
because he is a right-handed
player but the only way a keeper
will stop the type of penalty
Forde has now perfected is by
taking a chance and moving
to that right post before Forde
even addresses the ball.

An hour earlier, Patrick Horgan
took a similar type penalty
against Kilkenny and also
buried it in that right corner,
this time down at the Canal
End goal. Eoin Murphy is one of
the greatest goalkeepers the
game has seen but he never
got near it. He got closer to
Mark Fanning’s penalty in the
Leinster final – which was hit
to the opposite corner – but
Murphy still didn’t stop it.

The trends have certainly
been reversed. When the

one-on-one penalties were

introduced for the first time

in 2015, ‘keepers seemed to

have the edge on strikers.

The conversion rate in that

year’s championship was just

43%. The average conversion

rate in the 2016 and 2017

championships was just

above 50% but there were

clear signs in 2018 that

forwards have taken back the

power, in more than a literal

sense; the penalty conversion

rate in last year’s hurling

championship was 71%.

To date this summer, the

conversion rate is running as

high as 86%.

Initially, goalkeepers seemed

to have worked out the

strikers, and what they

were likely to do. Instead of

guessing, they stood up and

trusted their reactions. Yet

there was also a sense that

the strikers were also still

working their way through

the process. Power was often

being diluted for placement

but strikers now seem to have

perfectly married the two.

The most natural strike for

any player is to hit across

their body because that is

how they generate maximum

power. In the initial

two years of

the new rule,

around 80%

of hurling

penalty strikes

were consistent

with that style. That made it

easier for ‘keepers to read but

the takers have become less

predictable now.

Tracing Shane Dowling’s

penalty history, the majority

of his shots were struck

across his body and to the

goalkeeper’s left. Anthony

Nash expected him to do the

same in last year’s All-Ireland

semi-final. Nash moved to

that side as soon as Dowling

IN the Tipperary-Laois All-Ireland quarter-final

two weeks ago, just before Jason Forde stood over

his first-half penalty, Donal O’Grady said in his TV

co-commentary that Forde was likely to hit the

ball to the left of Laois goalkeeper Enda Rowland.

BY CHRISTY O’CONNOR

TAKING BACK

THE POWER