Performance analyst Ray Boyne, who worked for the Dublin footballers until last year, posted an interesting infographic on his Twitter account last night with the details.

According to his research, male GAA players cover an average of nearly 12km in each 70-minute game with female stars covering just two less over the course of a match.

Soccer players, during a 90-minute game, travel just over 14.5km while rugby stars clock up over 7km in each game.

In fact, based on these figures, GAA players would cover more kilometers per minute (0.167km) than their millionaire counterparts in the Premier League (0.162km), if added time is not taken into account.

There are of course many factors that have to be taken into account in interpreting the results, such as the intensity of each run and the duration.

Tennis players, for example, register just 4.9km according to Boyne’s research but do so largely in short, intense sprints.

Similarly, American Football and rugby players exert a huge amount of energy in the duration of a game in addition to the ground they cover as a result of the physicality involved in tackling, rucking and scrimmaging, for example.

In terms of metres per minute, there is little to choose between the top three sports.