With 3-34 scored in his four championship games this year, Shane Dooley heads to Portlaoise poised to take over as Offaly’s all time leading championship scorer.
By my calculation, Shane has scored 14-163 (205) to date. That is six points short of Brian Carroll, who currently sits on top of the Offaly championship scoring tree with 5-194 (209).
Shane overtook his uncle, Johnny Dooley, into second slot during the match against Leix earlier this month, Johnny having ended his career with 4-191 (203). That said, Leo McGough (who is the authority on such statistics) puts Johnny at 4-188. Leo McGough also has Johnny making 34 championship appearances when I’ve got 35. And don’t be minding Wikipedia – there’s no way Johnny can have scored 4-199 as claimed by the - I've got a match-by-match breakdown.
Which or whether, well done to Shane on his consistent marksmanship and even if he doesn’t overtake Brian Carroll against Galway, he looks set to take the lead very soon and will smash the record going forward.
While I’m at it, local media (print and broadcasting) are very quick to criticize this site when a few wayward comments are made. Yet to my knowledge, none of them have bothered to research feats such as Offaly’s top all- time scorer. And they are the ones who would (should) have scoring records readily available to them. Which demonstrates the value of media such as this, and the value of freedom of speech and of hearing the opinion of the ordinary punter. And raises the question – what do those fellas be doing with their time?
Neither has the County Board's website investigated the matter. Or the so-called Supporters' Club. What do they be doing?