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.
