Scoring prowess on show in Limerick hurling's top two grades

DOON’S Adam English is a certainty to end the 2026 Limerick Senior Hurling Championship as top scorer.

The flying attacker amassed a total of 1-71 across his six appearances and moved him ahead of Jason Gillane (4-40). Of English’s haul, 1-20 came from play, with the other 51 points coming from placed balls.

The pair are closely matched when scores are averaged across the sixty minutes, with English averaging 10.8, just ahead of 10.5 from the Patrickswell sharpshooter.

Completing the top five are Hugh Flanagan (2-43), Liam Lynch (3-36) and Shane Hassett (1-40). Keith Dempsey (0-41) and Pierce Connery (2-33) could climb the leaderboard up with big performances in this Sunday’s senior final.

It is a piece of data that has been monitored closely by this reporter in recent seasons, with Aidan O’Connor of Ballybrown top of the pile in 2025 and 2024, but injury restricted him to just two appearances this season. Impressively, he still totted up 2-20, prior to breaking his hand against Ahane.

The loss of the 2026 All-Star nominee was keenly felt in Clarina, with 7-44 scored from play alone across his last 15 Limerick SHC appearances. That is an average of 4.3 points per game from open play and add in his free taking and it swells to just over 11 points.

While the frees have to be scored, scoring from play is a metric that many continue to place great weight on. Players winning their own ball, ability to create space and convert the openings is something appreciated by any onlooker.

Top of that metric is Dean Coleman, as his 2-3 against Na Piarsaigh, brought his tally to 4-14. Add in an expertly taken goal from a quick-free against the Caherdavin side in round four and it has been a very impressive season for the former Limerick minor and U21 attacker.

Close by is Pierce Connery. Still a relative rookie at this level, the youngster has scored 2-19 from play, while has certainly created another chunk of scores for his Kilmallock teammates.

Mungret St Paul’s Fintan Fitzgerald (2-18) is in third spot, while Patrick Kearney of Adare, Peter Casey of Na Piarsaigh, Adam English from Doon and Donnacha Ó Dálaigh from Monlaeen are all tied next in the table, with a total of 23, made up of different combinations.

With regard to goals, Coleman’s five has him just ahead of teammate Donal Coughlan, who hit four. Jason Gillane, who netted the only hat-trick of the season thus far, also has four.

Finalists Shane O’Brien, Daithi Dempsey, Peter Casey and Eoin Brosnan have also found the net thrice, as did Jack O’Keeffe, Patrick Kearney, Liam Lynch and Mark O’Brien - to mixed results in group two.

There have been 106 green flags registered across the 34 senior games to date, an average of 3.1 per game. That average has essentially transitioned in the four knockout ties so far, with 13 goals (average of 3.25) scored.

On the individual front, Aidan O’Connor’s 2-9 against Doon in round one is the largest individual haul, with Hugh Flanagan (1-11) v Patrickswell and Adam English (0-14) v Ahane also racking up huge tallies in one performance. Jason Gillane reached a dozen points in three of his five appearances.

Barry Adams (2), Darragh O’Donovan, Mark O’Dwyer, Bryan Nix have all landed sideline cuts. With the proposed increase in the value of cutting the ball over the bar to two points, it is possible that the list of names could grow in the coming seasons.

Two hundred and fifty seven players have seen action in the top flight to date – with Kilmallock’s Darragh Cronin the latest when appearing as a sub in the semi-final win over Monaleen.

Goalkeeper Conor Hanley-Clarke, defenders Robbie Egan, Jackie Dwane, Ciaran O’Connor, and attacker Oisin O’Reilly have featured in each of the 360 minutes of Kilmallock action for James Hickey’s men.

Graeme Mulcahy, Aaron Costello and Pierce Connery have been virtually ever present for the south Limerick team – but departed late on in one of the six games thus far.

Dwane has been a superb general in the Kilmallock defence, he, along with Cronin, have made their senior debuts this season. It’s Dwane, though, who is certainly one of the brightest defenders on Shannonside and will bid for a unique minor and senior double on Sunday afternoon.

Mark O’Connor and Eoin Brosnan have also made their first team debuts for Na Piarsaigh – forcing their way firmly into Shane O’Neill’s plans. Brosnan with 3-4, has had bright moments for the nine-time winners.

Elsewhere in the Na Piarsaigh squad Shane Dowling, Ronan Lynch, Keith Dempsey and surprise semi-final goalscorer Emmett McEvoy have all featured in the entirety of the action to date.

McEvoy’s foray’s forward have yielded 1-3, while Dempsey’s free taking, plus nine points from play, have him as their top scorer. Keith has older brother Daithi Dempsey for support, while another brother Alan, also made his mark in his time in the light blue.

Kilmallock will be mindful of Ronan Lynch’s expert long range free taking, he has registered twenty points to date, with 0-18 of those coming from placed balls.

Meanwhile in the Premier Intermediate final this weekend, the umpires are most likely to be kept busy by Owen Meaney (Bruff) and David Reidy (Dromin-Athlacca).

Meaney is certainly a placed-ball specialist, with 71 of his 75 points to date coming from that route. He is joined by Seanie Tobin, with 2-69 (0-46 from placed balls), at the top of the overall scoring charts.

Behind that pair are Cian O’Carroll of Croagh Kilfinny, 3-61, Paddy O’Donovan (Effin) with 3-56 with the top five completed by 0-54 from David Reidy.

Reidy, who will hope to finish an already fantastic 2026 with a county title, just short of a third of his points from play, 0-17.

From open play, some names are prominent once again. At the top, though, is Jack Fitzgibbon (Dromin-Athlacca) with 4-18. Just a point behind him is Tobin, with 2-23. Paddy O’Donovan, 3-17, Seán O’Neill, 1-22, and Josh Keating, 1-18, complete the top five.

Fitzgibbon and Keating will look to improve their stats on Sunday afternoon, as they bid to return their clubs to senior ranks.

If goalscoring is an art, then Fitzgibbon and Shane Lyons (Blackrock) are artists, with four goals across eight games. Six players have netted three times; O’Carroll, O’Donovan, Darren Frewen (Glenroe), Fionn Heffernan (Blackrock), Tommy Quaid (Effin) and Darragh O’Donoghue (Granagh-Ballingarry) all keeping umpires busy.

Bruff have had two goals from Danny O’Leary, Darragh Butler, Diarmuid Dennehy and All-Star nominee, Seán Finn. Their green flag tally is at nine, with Josh Keating also registering.

David Breen of Dromin-Athlacca was the point-scoring hero the last time they won this title, his two goals adding to the four from Jack Fitzgibbon. Meanwhile Daniel Scully, Shane Fitzgibbon and Jack O’Connor have also netted, meaning they too have accumulated nine goals.

Across eight championship ties to date, Bruff have scored just 0-5 more than Dromin Athlacca, 9-149, compared to 9-144 from their neighbours.

Overall, there have been 66 goals in the 30 games thus far, an average of just 2.2 per game, nearly a full goal lower than the senior teams.

All the numbers point to two tight contests on the Ennis Road this Sunday, especially the group games. Kilmallock defeated Na Piarsaigh by just a point in round one, while the same margin was there when Bruff got the better of Dromin-Athlacca in late August.