SCORING IN CHAMPIONSHIP games has increased by almost 9% since the introduction of the black card, while the number of frees awarded has fallen by nearly 16% according to statistics released by the GAA today.
The Central Competitions Control Commitee of the GAA say that the average number of points in a game is now 36.43 (2.34 goals, 27.89 points) compared to 32.05 last season (1.98 goals, 26.10 points).
Indeed, the average number of points per game is now over four points more (14%) than it was in 2010.
51 black cards were handed out in this seasons’ 64 championship games, at a rate of just less than one a game (0.79). However, the number of other cards has fallen dramatically in the last year, as has the number of frees awarded.
In 2014 there were 217 yellow cards issued (3.39 per game) compared to 420 (6.89) in 2013. The number of reds also fell from 28 (.45) last season to just 9 (.14) this year while there were almost six less frees (36.43 compared to 42.17) per game.
These figures are consistent with trends witnessed in the league which saw a 50% reduction in the number of cards per game following the introduction of the black card.
Yeah but how many times should there have been black cards and the ref either bottled it or just gave a free.. should have been wayyy more according to their own rules!
Agreed. Refereeing standards in this years championship were woefully inconsistent and the black card and it’s application has just seemed to confuse the refs more leading to some just letting a lot of stuff go as if they were afraid to call it
I would have given this ten green thumbs if I could. Only in gaelic games could a rule, proven to have been working, be almost discarded towards the business end of the competition. Imagine how many scores we would have seen had the black card rule continued to be applied?
Add another 10 from me. So frustrating – consistency should be the name of he game – it’s what I love about rugby refereeing.
Get a few calls wrong, its easier said than done to make a big call when you have minimum time to think about it, im sure the creases will be ironed out for next year and will lead to a more entertaining championship
I’d say almost every game has had a talking point about the refs, from my own view the black card has been a failure and has only increased the sly fouling. There were so many blatant blacks missed this year its incredible.
I agree the refs were inconsistent with the black card this year, but it was the first year it was introduced and of course they’re going to
Cards are down cos the refs aren’t handing them out there is still cynicism in the game the black card has done nothing but that is down to refs not showing them when they should have
It’s clearly done something unless you don’t trust their fancy math.
Percentages? I’ll stick to me fingers thank you very much.