FINAL STAND:KILKENNY'S Henry Shefflin goes into the All-Ireland final in search of a record ninth All-Ireland medal won on the field of play (Noel Hickey can also win his ninth but he hasn't started all finals).
The Ballyhale Shamrocks forward has also accumulated a range of scoring records in the course of an intercounty senior career that began against Laois on June 20th 1999 when he scored 10 points. Since then in a championship career that has been exactly co-terminus with the management of Brian Cody, Shefflin has started all 60 matches.
This summer he broke the record of appearances for Kilkenny in championship when appearing for the 58th time, in the Leinster final. Two years ago in the Leinster semi-final against Dublin Shefflin became the highest-scoring player of all time.
Coincidentally exactly 11 years after his debut, having started just three points behind Eddie Keher’s record of 439 (34-234), he bettered his then career average of nine with a 12-point return to surpass his fellow county man and take his total to 448 (22-382).
This summer further records fell. Again against Dublin, in the Leinster semi-final rout in June, Shefflin became the first hurler to hit 500 points in a championship career.
His goal in the Leinster final against Sunday’s opponents Galway made him the only player to have scored a goal in 14 successive championships.
He remains, with 27, seven goals behind Keher’s career tally but at the weekend has the opportunity to make further inroads as well as to top the scoring lists for this season. Shefflin is five points adrift of Limerick’s Shane Dowling, who posted the highest individual score of the championship with 3-9 against Antrim.
He is also nine ahead of Joe Canning, the Galway sharp shooter who topped the charts in 2009 with 3-45.
TOP TEN SCORERS 2012
Shane Dowling (Limerick)4-37 (49)
Patrick Horgan (Cork)1-42 (45)
Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny)3-35 (44)
Joe Canning (Galway)1-32 (35)
Pa Bourke (Tipperary)2-29 (35)
Shane Dooley (Offaly)4-21 (33)
Willie Hyland (Laois)1-26 (29)
Diarmuid Lyng (Wexford)1-25 (28)
Niall O’Brien (Westmeath)2-20 (26)
Maurice Shanahan (Waterford) 0-24 (24)
No pressure on Gilroy: Dublin board to give manager time to make decision on future
The Dublin County Board will give football manager Pat Gilroy time to think about his future after Sunday’s defeat by Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final – the team’s first in two years of championship – according to county chair Andy Kettle, who said that the manager hadn’t restricted last year’s extension of his appointment to one season.“Pat’s decision was to take it on and review the situation on an annual basis rather than he took it for strictly a year.
“His attitude was ‘I’ll give it another year and we’ll have a look at it again’. I understand completely Pat’s views as stated after the match – that it’s all too raw at the moment.
“He’ll do exactly what he did last year: go away and have a think – consider his kids, his business and career, etc. He’s already left a legacy, turned things around and brought us an All-Ireland so he deserves some time and space to make up his mind.”
There is speculation that Gilroy, a successful businessman, may opt to concentrate on his career after four years in the position during which time he has taken Dublin to three Leinster titles and one All-Ireland as well as last year’s league final.
Dublin have also enjoyed considerable underage success in that time with two All-Ireland under-21 titles under Jim Gavin’s management. They have also reached successive All-Ireland minor finals, the second of which Dessie Farrell’s side are favourites to win against Meath in three weeks’ time.
