Better than average: the best averages In last week's Tribune Sports Monthly magazine Mad About Sport, the When Sunday Comes team presented the greatest goalscorers of yesteryear and the current day. It was timely too, as over that same weekend, the three current players in the list all found the net . . . Eddie Brennan, Dan Shanahan and Paul Flynn.

But what about scoring from play in general, points and goals? Well, seven of the top 10 are in action today in Croke Park. No wonder it should be such a feast of hurling (see 'Prolific from Play' table, right).

As the 'Prolific from Play' table shows, Niall Gilligan is the secondhighest scorer from play still playing inter-county hurling, but his average is 'only' 2.38, which is below six other players in that top 10.

Just to save you the bother of checking who those six are, they are presented in order in the 'Far From Average' table. As you'll see Henry Shefflin again leads the way, though John Mullane is right on his tail.

Mind you, if you were to leave aside the first six years of Dan Shanahan's career and focus just on his last four, then Dan The Man would easily lead the way.

Before 2004 he'd only scored 23 points and not a single goal in 17 games. But since then he's scored an incredible 17 goals and 24 points in 18 games, an average of 4.17 points per game.

Alan Kerins' position is also slightly false, with 11-20 of his 1159 coming in his eight games against sides outside hurling's top nine, which would leave him on a respectable but unspectacular 1.7 points per game against topnine opposition.

Mullane: the unlikely Mr Dependable Amid the torrent of amazing hurling action that took place last weekend one unusual statistic emerged . . .

Henry Shefflin was held scoreless from play. Was it a first?

No. Though Hitman Henry is the runaway leader of active scorers, six times in his 38 championship games he's left the field without raising a flag from play.

And the encouraging thing today for Wexford folk is that three of those shutouts have been against the purple and gold . . . in 2001, 2004 and 2005.

That leaves Henry in sixth place in the percentage chart (see 'Strike Rates' table), well off John Mullane (left), who has a brilliant 92% strike rate, his two blanks coming against Limerick in the 2003 drawn match and the 2005 Munster semi-final against Cork. To give that some context, DJ Carey only had a strike rate of 79%, being held scoreless from play in 12 games.

Only Eoin Kelly (below) has a better rate than Mullane, with an incredible 94% return. His two blanks were the 2001 Munster final and the 2003 qualifier in Salthill against Galway, but since then he's on a 20-game scoring run, despite Babs' efforts to hamper it last weekend.

In third spot is Joe Deane on 89%, who, after failing to score on his 1996 debut against Limerick, went the next 26 games raising at least one flag from play, the best scoring streak by any player still playing today.

That run came to an end in the 2004 All Ireland final, while he was again held scoreless from play in the 2005 final and 2006 All Ireland semi-final and this year's first-round game against Clare.

Also up there is Ben O'Connor, who scored at least a point in his first 17 championship games, prior to the 2004 Munster semi-final against Limerick . . . and even then his 1-7 from deadballs decided that game.

And of course, Paul Flynn lurks around there too with an 85% strike rate, which was a 100% return in the 22 games he played between scoring that 20-metre free in the 1998 drawn Munster final against Clare and facing the same opposition in the 2005 qualifier in Ennis. Since then he's drawn two further blanks, both against Cork in Croke Park when he was visibly not fit . . . but as last week showed, he's fit now.

Eoin McGrath: why it was the wrong decision

Eoin McGrath has come in for a lot of attention and in many quarters, a lot of praise for daring to go for goal last Sunday but was it that commendable a choice? In all the praise and analysis of his death or glory decision, it has yet to be pointed out that in his 26 championship games for the Deise, he has NEVER scored a goal.

Also, when you go through the 30plus games he's played for the county in the league, he's never found the net against a top-nine team either, his two goals coming against Down and Antrim . . . two years ago.

It's fine to compare his situation to Kevin Foley who had never scored a goal for Meath before his famous effort in 1991 but Meath were a goal down at the time and even Foley wasn't going to miss from two yards.

And it's fine to say McGrath forced a class save from Donal Og Cusack but the chance of Cusack pulling off a class save was always higher than the chances of McGrath beating him.

Whatever about being a foolish boy, lucky boy, Eoin.

Betcha didn't know this now Staying with a scoring theme, how many championship goals has Wexford goalkeeper Damien Fitzhenry now got to his name?