Mayo star Cillian O’Connor set a new football Championship record with his 4-9 against Tipperary at Croke Park.
The Ballintubber ace shot 4-3 from play as Mayo blitzed the Munster champions to set up an All-Ireland final date with Dublin in a fortnight.
“I’m just really pleased with how the game went and delighted to get the win,” said the humble O’Connor afterwards. “The scoring probably flatters us a small bit.
“We have loads of work to do now in the next two weeks, disappointed with some aspects of our play. We wanted to give everything we could for the supporters who can’t be here when we step out. We miss them.”
Tyrone legend Frankie Donnelly still holds the record for the highest individual scoring feat in an inter-county game, a 4-11 tally in a Dr Lagan Cup game against Fermanagh back in 1957.
In Championship football, Dublin’s Johnny Joyce scored 5-3 against Longford in 1960 while Matty Hoey of Sligo notched 3-8 in one game in 1978. More recently Fermanagh’s Rory Gallagher hit 3-9 in the Ulster SFC against Monaghan in 2002, two of those goals coming from penalties.
O’Connor is no stranger to Championship hat-tricks. His 3-3 v London in ‘13, 3-4 v Donegal in ‘13 and 3-9 v Limerick in ‘18 were his previous senior Championship trebles.
Today, the Mayo forward scored 3-6 in the first half alone which equalled the first half tally of Matt Connor of Offaly against Kerry in 1980.
Frank Stockwell’s 2-5 for Galway against Cork in the 1956 All-Ireland football final is still the stuff of legend. It was surpassed by Jimmy Keaveney’s 2-6 against Armagh in 1977 and Mike Sheehy’s identical total against Dublin in 1979. Amazingly, Stockwell’s were all from play.
The closest thing to Stockwell’s tour de force is the 3-2 scored by Eoin Liston in the 1978 final against Dublin. But the Kerry attacker had 70 minutes in which to amass his total whereas the 1956 final was only an hour long.
