| County ID | County | Province | Division | Top Scorer | Goals | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antrim | Ulster | Division 3 | Dominic McEnhill | 2 | 14 |
| 2 | Armagh | Ulster | Division 1 | Conor Turbitt | 2 | 31 |
| 3 | Carlow | Leinster | Division 4 | Darragh Foley | 1 | 21 |
| 4 | Cavan | Ulster | Division 2 | Patrick Lynch | 1 | 48 |
| 5 | Clare | Munster | Division 3 | Emmet McMahon | 0 | 19 |
| 6 | Cork | Munster | Division 2 | Brian Hurley | 0 | 24 |
2024 GAA Allianz National Football League In Review
With Focus on Division 3
1 Introduction
Sponsored by Allianz Insurance, the 2024 GAA National Football League (GAA NFL) comprises of 4 Divisions incorporating Gaelic Football teams from the Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht provinces of Ireland.
Although the island of Ireland is made up of 32 Counties, Kilkenny have opted out of participating at Senior Football level. Despite not being located within Ireland, in recognition of the Irish diaspora, a team from London compete in the GAA NFL; and for Provincial classification purposes they are regarded as being attached to Connacht.
2 Aims Of This Review
This review aims at initially conducting a high level analysis across all 4 NFL Divisions, in terms of Division make up, Provincial representation, scoring statistics and venue comparisons; while later focusing in on NFL Division 3 to analyse results and generate a final league table.
3 Datasets
To conduct this analysis, datasets relating to Teams (or Counties) and Venues were collated. A further dataset containing data relating to individual matches in NLF Division 3 was also gathered along with player touch and kickout data.
A preview of datasets is shown below.
3.1 Teams
The Teams dataset contains details of each Team/County, including their Province, Division played in 2024 along with details of their Top Scorer.
3.2 Venues
The Venues dataset contains details of each GAA Venue along with the capacity.
Using an Inner Join, details of each county and their home venue can be combined into a single dataframe.
| Venue ID | Venue | Capacity | County ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Athletic Grounds | 18500 | 2 |
| 2 | Aughrim County Ground | 10000 | 33 |
| 3 | Breffni Park | 32000 | 4 |
| 4 | Brewster Park | 18000 | 11 |
| 5 | Celtic Park | 18000 | 7 |
| 6 | Corrigan Park | 3700 | 1 |
3.3 Player Touches
The Player Touches dataset contains details of where a particular player touches the ball during a GAA match.
Using the Sports Analysis software NacSport, the X and Y coordinates of the players position was recorded. Initially these coordinates were recorded with the GAA pitch in Portrait format. Transforming these into a Landscape orientation is achieved as seen in the X2, Y2 columns. Finally, as the dimensions of the pitch initially used in analysis differ slightly to the pitch used in this analysis, a further transformation is applied to adjust the coordinates appropriately as seen in X3,Y3. These final X3,Y3 coordinates are used to generate a touch/heat map.
| X1 | Y1 | X2 | Y2 | X3 | Y3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39 | 68 | 68 | 41 | 70 | 45 |
| 42 | 57 | 57 | 38 | 59 | 42 |
| 18 | 40 | 40 | 62 | 41 | 68 |
| 75 | 68 | 68 | 5 | 70 | 6 |
| 43 | 55 | 55 | 37 | 57 | 41 |
| 36 | 50 | 50 | 44 | 51 | 48 |
3.4 Kickouts
Similar to Player Touches, opposition kick-outs were also analysed to determine the coordinates of where each kick-out landed and whether the team had Won (retained) or Lost possession. Again, the same transformations were applied to rotate and re-factor the coordinates from Portrait to Landscape orientation.
| X | Y | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 60 | 16 | Won |
| 89 | 85 | Won |
| 82 | 16 | Won |
| 109 | 14 | Won |
| 115 | 74 | Won |
| 73 | 15 | Lost |
3.5 Division 3 In Focus
The dataset relating to Division 3 can be seen here Section 8.1.
Back To Top - 1 Introduction
4 Provinces
Comprising of 32 Counties, the island of Ireland is divided into 4 Provinces.
The breakdown of the number of competing counties per Province is indicated below. Kilkenny, although geographically in Leinster, opt out of competing at Senior level Gaelic Football and so are excluded from the visual. Equally, despite not being within in island of Ireland, London is considered a Connacht team.
As can be seen, Leinster contains the most Counties with 11, Ulster have the next largest number with 9 while Munster and Connacht both comprise of 6 GAA playing Counties.
Back To Top - 1 Introduction
5 Venues
With each county having their own Home venue, details of each venue, per province is illustrated below.
As can be expected, by nature of having the most counties, Leinster again tops the chart of combined venue capacity.
Interestingly, Munster overtakes Ulster despite having fewer participating counties.
5.1 Provincial Venue Breakdown
Further analysis of each venue per Province is shown below.
5.1.1 Further Analysing Venues
As can be seen from the box plot below, there appears to be a significant outlier in terms of venue capacity across all teams.
This can be further analysed by a Provincial breakdown to find the source of the potential anomalies.
5.2 Venue Analysis
As can be seen, the Leinster box plot appears to be the source of the high outlier. This “oddity” can be attributed to the Croke Park venue, home of the GAA.
For well over a century, Croke Park has been headquarters of the GAA. Every September, the Association’s two annual marquee events - the GAA All-Ireland Football and Hurling Championship Finals – attract a capacity 82,300 fans, to witness the pinnacle of Gaelic games action - in this world-renowned cathedral of sport. Croke Park
Although Parnell Park, with a capacity of 8,500, is the traditional home venue for Dublin GAA, in recent years they have been permitted to use Croke Park as their “home” ground.
At the opposite end of the scale, Ulster appears to reveal an outlier at the lower whisker. This can be attributed to Antrim GAA who previously played at Casement Park. However delayed reconstruction of the proposed 31,500 capacity stadium has seen “The Saffrons” move to the smaller 3,700 capacity Corrigan Park, also located in Belfast.
Back To Top - 1 Introduction
6 Top Scorers 2024
The scoring system in GAA allows for goals and points. A point, as the name suggests is worth 1 point while a goal is valued at 3 points. Note: For the 2025 season a new scoring system has been put in place by the Football Rules Committee (FRC) however this analysis and review is based on the 2024 scoring system.
Removing Kilkenny from the analysis, scoring details for the Counties combined are as follows.
6.1 Points Scored (By Top Scorers)
6.2 Top Scorers
Plotting scorers who have more than the average scores for the season. The chart further highlights the players, Shane McGuigan, Patrick Lynch and Pat Havern who have scored 15 or more points greater than the overall average.
6.3 Scoring Analysis
As can be seen above, from 32 players, 15 players scored more than the average points tally of all top scorers.
Adding a point for every player above average, just 3 players have scored 15 points (or more) over the average amount of points scored.
Interestingly, the 3 players, Pat Havern, Patrick Lynch and Shane McGuigan all hail from the Ulster Counties; Down, Cavan and Derry.
Back To Top - 1 Introduction
7 National Football League 2024
The GAA National Football League is divided into 4 Divisions whereby a team plays against each other team in its division once. A win earns 2 points for the victorious team, while a game ending in a draw earns each team 1 point each. Zero points are allocated to a defeated team.
At the end of the League campaign, the top 2 teams in each division are promoted to the next higher division, while the bottom 2 are relegated to the division below.
There is no relegation beyond Division 4, and similarly there is no higher promotion than being in Division 1.
Notwithstanding the final league placings, each season the top 2 teams in each Division also take part in a “League Final” play-off match to determine who becomes Champions of that division.
For the 2024 season, the Divisions started the campaign with the following make up.
7.1 2024 Division 1
7.1.1 Provincial breakdown of Division 1
7.1.2 Division 1 Final Standings
Division 1 ended with Derry on top of the table, advancing to a League Final with Dublin. At the other end of the table, Monaghan and Roscommon are relegated to Division 2.
7.2 2024 Division 2
7.2.1 Provincial breakdown of Division 2 teams
7.2.2 Division 2 Final Standings
Division 2 ended with an “all Ulster final” with Donegal and Armagh promoted to Division 1. Fermanagh and Kildare ended the League campaign being relegated to Division 3
7.3 2024 Division 3
7.3.1 Provincial breakdown of Division 3 teams
7.3.2 Division 3 Final Standings
See Section 8 for more details on NFL Division 3.
7.4 2024 Division 4
7.4.1 Provincial breakdown of Division 4 teams
7.4.2 Division 4 Final Standings
Laois and Leitrim advanced to Division 3 from Division 4 at the end of the 2024 League season. Despite finishing in the bottom 2, there is no relegation from Division 4 and so London and Waterford remain in situ for the 2025 season.
7.5 League Division Analysis
As can be seen, both Connacht and Ulster have the largest number of teams in Division 1 while 5 of the 11 teams in Leinster ply their trade in Division 4.
Division 3 indicates the most even distribution of Provinces with 2 from each of Leinster, Ulster and Munster; Sligo being Connacht’s sole representative.
Interestingly, in three of the four Divisions, a team from Ulster finished the League campaign on top of the table; Division 4 being the exception, with no Ulster representation at that level.
Back To Top - 1 Introduction
8 GAA NFL Division 3 In Focus
Comprising of 7 teams, the 2024 GAA National Football League Division 3 began on the 28th of January, with Round 1 of 7.
8.1 Dataset
For analysing Division 3, a dataset was generating containing fixture and score details from all League games. V_ID is used to link each match to a Venue.
A preview of the dataset is shown below.
| round | date | home_team | home_goals | home_points | away_team | away_goals | away_points | V_ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 28/01/2024 | Wicklow | 2 | 7 | Antrim | 2 | 14 | 2 |
| 1 | 28/01/2024 | Limerick | 0 | 13 | Down | 0 | 18 | 13 |
| 1 | 28/01/2024 | Offaly | 0 | 10 | Westmeath | 1 | 11 | 22 |
| 1 | 28/01/2024 | Clare | 0 | 9 | Sligo | 1 | 5 | 8 |
| 2 | 03/02/2024 | Down | 3 | 16 | Limerick | 0 | 9 | 23 |
| 2 | 04/02/2024 | Sligo | 2 | 10 | Wicklow | 1 | 11 | 18 |
8.2 NFL Division 3 - Round By Round Results
Details of each rounds fixtures/results are shown below. Home Goals and Points are abbreviated as “HG” and “HP” respectively. A similar naming convention applies to scores for the Away team.
The winning team from of each game is indicated on each table indicated. Where the game ended in a draw, the team names and “Draw” appears.
8.2.1 Round 1
The opening round of games for NFL Division 3 was played on Sunday 28th of January 2024.
| Date | Home | HG | HP | Away | AG | AP | Venue | winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28/01/2024 | Wicklow | 2 | 7 | Antrim | 2 | 14 | Aughrim County Ground | Antrim |
| 28/01/2024 | Limerick | 0 | 13 | Down | 0 | 18 | Gaelic Grounds | Down |
| 28/01/2024 | Offaly | 0 | 10 | Westmeath | 1 | 11 | O'Connor Park | Westmeath |
| 28/01/2024 | Clare | 0 | 9 | Sligo | 1 | 5 | Cusack Park | Clare |
8.2.2 Round 2
Round 2 for NFL Division 3 was plated over the weekend of the 4th of February.
| Date | Home | HG | HP | Away | AG | AP | Venue | winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03/02/2024 | Down | 3 | 16 | Limerick | 0 | 9 | O'Moore Park | Down |
| 04/02/2024 | Sligo | 2 | 10 | Wicklow | 1 | 11 | MacHale Park | Sligo |
| 04/02/2024 | Antrim | 2 | 5 | Offaly | 1 | 7 | Corrigan Park | Antrim |
| 04/02/2024 | Westmeath | 1 | 11 | Clare | 0 | 13 | Cusack Park | Westmeath |
8.2.3 Round 3
All games in Round 3 were played on Sunday 18th of February.
| Date | Home | HG | HP | Away | AG | AP | Venue | winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18/02/2024 | Wicklow | 0 | 10 | Westmeath | 1 | 13 | Aughrim County Ground | Westmeath |
| 18/02/2024 | Offaly | 1 | 12 | Clare | 2 | 10 | O'Connor Park | Clare |
| 18/02/2024 | Limerick | 0 | 10 | Sligo | 1 | 12 | Gaelic Grounds | Sligo |
| 18/02/2024 | Antrim | 1 | 6 | Down | 1 | 15 | Corrigan Park | Down |
8.2.4 Round 4
One game in Round 4 took place on Saturday 24th of February, with the remaining three games played on Sunday 25th.
| Date | Home | HG | HP | Away | AG | AP | Venue | winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24/02/2024 | Down | 4 | 12 | Offaly | 2 | 14 | O'Moore Park | Down |
| 25/02/2024 | Clare | 2 | 15 | Wicklow | 0 | 8 | Cusack Park | Clare |
| 25/02/2024 | Westmeath | 0 | 14 | Limerick | 1 | 8 | Cusack Park | Westmeath |
| 25/02/2024 | Sligo | 1 | 20 | Antrim | 1 | 13 | MacHale Park | Sligo |
8.2.5 Round 5
Round 5 had a singular game played on Saturday 2nd of March, with the remaining games played on Sunday 3rd of March.
| Date | Home | HG | HP | Away | AG | AP | Venue | winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02/03/2024 | Limerick | 0 | 14 | Clare | 1 | 16 | Gaelic Grounds | Clare |
| 03/03/2024 | Offaly | 5 | 15 | Wicklow | 0 | 10 | O'Connor Park | Offaly |
| 03/03/2024 | Down | 2 | 17 | Sligo | 1 | 8 | O'Moore Park | Down |
| 03/03/2024 | Antrim | 0 | 9 | Westmeath | 0 | 13 | Corrigan Park | Westmeath |
8.2.6 Round 6
Round 6 of the National Football League took place over St. Patricks Weekend, with three games being played on the feast day of St. Patrick (March 17th), with Wicklow playing their match the day before.
| Date | Home | HG | HP | Away | AG | AP | Venue | winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16/03/2024 | Wicklow | 0 | 9 | Limerick | 0 | 8 | Aughrim County Ground | Wicklow |
| 17/03/2024 | Clare | 0 | 15 | Antrim | 0 | 8 | Cusack Park | Clare |
| 17/03/2024 | Sligo | 0 | 13 | Offaly | 1 | 10 | Markievicz Park | Sligo Draw Offaly Draw |
| 17/03/2024 | Westmeath | 0 | 13 | Down | 1 | 10 | Cusack Park | Westmeath Draw Down Draw |
8.2.7 Round 7
With Round 7 being the final round of the League series, all games were played on Sunday 24th of March.
| Date | Home | HG | HP | Away | AG | AP | Venue | winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24/03/2024 | Sligo | 1 | 14 | Westmeath | 0 | 11 | MacHale Park | Sligo |
| 24/03/2024 | Offaly | 1 | 10 | Limerick | 0 | 12 | O'Connor Park | Offaly |
| 24/03/2024 | Down | 3 | 15 | Clare | 1 | 10 | O'Moore Park | Down |
| 24/03/2024 | Antrim | 1 | 14 | Wicklow | 0 | 14 | Corrigan Park | Antrim |
8.3 NFL Division 3 Analysis
| Team | Played | Won | Draw | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Down | 7 | 6 | 1 | 13 |
| Westmeath | 7 | 5 | 1 | 11 |
| Clare | 7 | 5 | 0 | 10 |
| Sligo | 7 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| Antrim | 7 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Offaly | 7 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Limerick | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
As can be seen, Down topped the table and faced Westmeath in the Division 3 League Final. Despite finishing on top of the table, Down subsequently lost the League Final on a score of 0-13 to 2-10, and Westmeath were declared the Division 3 Champions.
Regardless of the League Final result, both sides were promoted to Division 2 for the 2025 season.
Offaly and Limerick ended their League season being relegated to Division 4.
Overall, 28 matches were played across 7 rounds of games across a 9 week period, with Down and Westmeath playing an additional match for the League final making it 8 games in 10 weeks.
Throughout this League campaign, the following observations can be made:
8.3.1 Division 3 Scoring Analysis
Division 3 also proved to be a high scoring division with the following observations.
Points scored and conceded by each team is illustrated below.
As can be seen, Down were the division’s top scorers while Westmeath conceded the least points during the campaign.
Relegated Limerick were the lowest scoring team and conceded the most during the league.
8.3.2 Division 3 Top Scorer Analysis
Analysis of the Top Scorers in Division 3 is shown below.
Individual player scoring can be seen below. As expected, with Down being the highest scoring team in the division, their full-forward Pat Havern tops the individual scoring charts.
Interestingly, League Champions Westmeath top scorer Senan Baker is the second lowest of the top scorers. This indicates that the “Lake County” scores were distributed across the team, and they were not as reliant on one player.
Back To Top - 1 Introduction
9 Team Analysis
While this report focused on the overall analysis of National Football Leagues, with a particular focus on NFL Division 3, the role of a Performance Analyst also incorporates analysing opposing teams, and indeed individual players.
9.1 Opposition Analysis
Analysing opposition teams can involve observing, recording and analysing a large number of performance indicators. While every event that happens on a football pitch can be counted, it is important to determine which events really count as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI).
Analysing two common KPI’s involves generating Player Touch Maps and Kickout Maps. An example of each is shown below.
9.1.1 Player Watch
On reviewing an upcoming opponent, a comprehensive analysis is conducted the team and their style of play. Further analysis is conducted on individual players considered, or recognised, as key players. Using heat maps, we can track a players movements on the pitch, giving an indication of their positioning.
In this case, as indicated by the dark red colour, the player is mainly positioned to receive the ball just ahead of the midfield area, in the traditional “centre-half forward”, occasionally drifting to the right side to collect the ball.
9.1.2 Kickout Analysis
In GAA, a team gains possession of the ball via three methods: winning their own kickout, gaining possession from the opposition via a turnover, and winning the opposition kickout.
By analysing the location/direction of an opponent’s kickouts, a team can use the data to identify common trends around direction and kickout length. Using the coordinates of where each kickout lands, the locations can also be plotted on a chart for easier comprehension.
As can be seem from the graphical representation of the opponents kickouts, they avoid the central channel, opting to place kickouts towards the wings. The majority of kickouts land within the 45-meter line, with ten kickouts travelling between 65-meter and the halfway line. Two kickouts were delivered past the halfway line marking.
As the data shows, this particular team have lost more kickouts than they have won, indicating there is good opportunity to win possession from this opponents kickout.
Back To Top - 1 Introduction
10 Conclusion
Overall, across the four Divisions of the 2024 GAA National Football League, 116 games of football were played between 27th January and 31st March 2024.
Although Ulster teams dominated the final table standings in three of the four divisions, the League Final Winners were evenly spread between Ulster and Leinster.
- Derry (Ulster)
- Derry defeated Dublin 3-1 on penalties after the match ended
in a drawn scoreline of 3-18 to 2-21.
- Derry defeated Dublin 3-1 on penalties after the match ended
- Donegal (Ulster)
- Donegal beat eventual All Ireland Championship winners Armagh
on a scoreline of 0-15 to 0-14.
- Donegal beat eventual All Ireland Championship winners Armagh
- Westmeath (Leinster)
- Westmeath were victorious over Down in the Division 3 Final on
scoreline of 2-10 to 0-13
- Westmeath were victorious over Down in the Division 3 Final on
- Laois (Leinster)
- Laois overcame Leitrim with a score of 3-14 to 0-09
This report is also available online at RPubs
11 References
GAA/Croke Park : https://crokepark.ie/Stadium
League Tables : https://www.gaa.ie/fixtures-results/tables
NacSport : https://www.nacsport.com/index.php?lc=en-gb
Witness The Analysis : https://witnesstheanalysis.wordpress.com/2020/10/06/some-r-codes-for-various-pitchescourts-and-ovals/