All hail the creator: A look at those topping the hurling assist charts
The hurling championship started with a bang in 2018 when a packed Parnell Park witnessed Dublin cruelly denied by a never say die Kilkenny.
What struck me most that day was Liam Rushe’s performance at full forward.
The former All-Star centre-back was a nightmare for the visiting defenders, despite not registering a shot at goal over the 70-plus minutes.
Instead of seeking scores, Rushe’s role was to create them for others.
In the end, he set up teammates for nine different shots — leading to 1-5 scored, two-goal chances saved and one wide.
It was a remarkable performance that led me to track the assists for the 2018 All-Ireland hurling championship.
Rushe’s assists weren’t bettered in a single game. Daniel Kearney’s eight assists in the All-Ireland semi-final came closest but even with both semi-finals running into extra-time no one could better his score.
However Kilkenny’s TJ Reid produced the highest number of assists per game (4.17) throughout the championship (and thus tops our list above) with over a third being frees won which he pointed himself.
An interesting note on the champions’ season was that Limerick’s highest number of shot assists came from their goalkeeper, Nickie Quaid.
A strong system for puckouts was key to the success of this Limerick side.
The All-Ireland final saw Quaid provide the assist for six shots — which bizarrely led to six wides. Quaid linked up with Tom Morrissey on nearly one third of his assists recorded this season.
After Reid and Rushe, the third best ‘assistor’ this season was the rampant John Conlon, who averaged 3.84 shot assists a game.
What makes Conlon’s assists total even more impressive is that he also led the championship in taking the highest number of shots from play per game (4.8).
Conlon was involved in either taking — or creating — 8.65 shots per championship game for Clare.
Conlon was fouled 19 times for frees, generating 1-17 in scores for Clare throughout the season.
Conor Whelan was the next most fouled hurler with 1-13 coming from fouls on the Galway corner forward.
Peter Casey also deserves a special mention. His block down in the All-Ireland final which set up Limerick’s final goal will be remembered for years but in his 40 minutes as a substitute against Cork in the semi-final, his six assists led to 0-5.
