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ANALYSIS WESTMEATH VS MEATH TG4 INTERMEDIATE CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL 2020 20TH DECEMBER STATS AND ANALYSIS TADHG DORNAN @ROCKSOLIDANALYTICS Powered By: ANALYSIS OF GAME With five goals in the opening 30 minutes of football, the 2020 TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate final certainly started with a bang. Despite conceding the fair share of these opening goals, however, Meath always looked more assured, with the bedrock to their success coming from their kickouts. For most goalkeepers, conceding three goals within the first ten minutes would be demoralising but Monica McGuirk showed a great deal of assurance when on the ball in open play and from restarts. She and her team ended the day with a 91.5 % success rate on kickouts and this level of success allowed Meath to keep a high tempo to the game and contain any Westmeath momentum. In contrast, the opening goals of the game underlined Westmeath's work-rate and desire to turn over the ball in the defensive third. This was well illustrated by the work-rate of captain Fiona Claffey who helped Westmeath attain five interceptions within the opening half. For any team trying to utilise stats to analyse their performance, the half-time breakdown from this game is a perfect example to predict an eventual winner. Meath were performing well in kickouts, number of attacks and scoreable free conversion. As a result, they could almost guarantee a shot from every attack. In contrast. Westmeath nearly doubled Meath's turnover count and had used these changes in possession to create scoring chances. From my perspective, if Meath could reduce their number of unforced errors and keep possession of the ball, then it was clear they would come out on KPI Westmeath 4-05 Meath 2-17 Game period 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 Full 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 Full Attacks 8 6 6 5 25 10 5 9 8 32 Attack:Shot+frees 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.75 0.9 0.6 1 1 0.875 Shots 6 3 2 2 13 7 2 5 7 21 Scores from play 9 0 1 0 10 10 1 1 3 15 Shot efficiency 50% 0% 50% 0% 25.00% 85% 50% 20% 43% 49.50% Placed ball chances 1 2 2 1 6 2 1 4 1 8 Placed ball conversion % 100% 100% 100% 0% 75.00% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100.00% Kickout retention % 29% (2/7) 100% (2/2) 43% (3/7) 57% (4/7) 57.00% 100% (7/7) 100% (4/4) 66% (2/3) 100% (1/1) 91.50% Positive turnovers 5 3 2 2 12 3 2 4 5 14 Frees conceded 5 6 7 6 24 3 3 4 5 15 Unforced errors 3 1 4 4 12 5 3 3 2 13 Game period 1.1 = 1st half before the water break, same for period 2.1 18 | WINTER 2020 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie