The whole 'over an entire season' thing is just silly, and solely designed to exclude Maguire, and thereby go on about how he has done what 'no other striker in the modern game' has done.
While you could be right about them being better players, it's hard to argue they're more important. There's an absolute dearth of top quality strikers in the league at the moment, snagging one who can score 20+ goals is nearly the equivalent of 2 of your other players in terms of impact.
The whole 'over an entire season' thing is just silly, and solely designed to exclude Maguire, and thereby go on about how he has done what 'no other striker in the modern game' has done.
Over the course of the season is simply the primary way most statisticians, supporters and commentators tend to view goal scoring records. It is also a simple statement of facts that he has matched Brendan Bradley's goal scoring record of 1975-76 season and one more next week will surpass it.
Saluting Hoban's phenomenal goal scoring feats this season excludes no one
Hoban looks a better footballer in 2018 (average goal per start 0.85) versus 2014 (average goal per start 0.69) but 2018 Dundalk team were a better team (average points per game 2.45 so far) versus 2014 Dundalk team (average 2.24 points per game) so bit easier to score more goals as a Dundalk striker in 2018 than 2014
I do think the league has declined in standard over that 4 year period but I don't think there is that must of a divergence in Hoban's stats and the respective Dundalk teams in 2014 & 2018 to suggest anything but that he is a top LOI striker and a 'MVP' difference maker to win this league. His disappointing time in England should not overshadow his exceptional performance this season. Ireland call-up talk is another story
The Leinster Senior League needs a strong Bohemians
No one is denying he’s an excellent League of Ireland striker but from watching the game back (I’m a sadist) RTE made it sound like he had scored the most goals ever in a league season and just dismissed what Turnball et al did. It’s like you’re watching a game in England and all they talk about is Premier League records as if there was no top flight football in England before the Premier League started.
Dundalk were absolutely brilliant on a Friday night. Be glad to see the back of this season (again).
Why choose Bradley's tally as a record?
A - it's nothing more than a Finn Harps club record, at the end of the day.
B - it wasn't even achieved in the era of our own Premier Division.
The equivalent would be Cork City claiming a third successive FAI Cup (should it happen) would be a record.
Of course, it would beat the club's own record of two but would ignore the superior achievements of Shamrock Rovers just because that was a long time ago.
...Schwanholz, Herisau: a little bit of heaven...
Congratz Harps - I’ll be cheering you on vs Limerick 👍🍺
Drogheda United in this together
RTE arbitrarily picked a goalscoring record that Hoban can break in order to create some drama and discussion during televised games.
The season ended very early this year so all real drama was sucked out of it.
The real significance of Hoban's goalscoring exploits is not what players did 50 or 80 years ago, it is that no other striker managed to score this quantity of goals in a season in recent memory. It is a fantastic achievement and one that should be lauded.
Naturally, it should be - and is - seen as a very fine achievement.
That's not the problem people have with it at all. The problem is that it's not and isn't even close to the existing record.
Whether that nonsense came from RTE or wherever is actually not the point.
...Schwanholz, Herisau: a little bit of heaven...
Brendan Bradley's record is apparently the record goals in a season in the 2 division era, as opposed to Jimmy Gauld & Jimmy Turnbull who played in a single division league of Ireland. Now how that has any effect on the number of goals you score in a season is beyond me, it's a bit like the UK football media using "In the premier league era" as the benchmark for records broken as if there was no football before it.
Anyway, I think we can all agree Hoban is class.
Mon the Town!
Bradley's club record was set in the single-division era.
But keep deluding yourself.
And spare a thought for Hoban who, if he scores next week, will probably believe he holds a new LOI record only to told, "Sorry, you're actually six short".
Surprised particularly at this whole "record" stuff from Dundalk, a club which probably has the best team of LOI statties in the country.
...Schwanholz, Herisau: a little bit of heaven...
What does modern era mean? Is there a cut off point? Is it a rolling era? It seems very arbitrary. In England they have specific cuts offs that records apply to. Premier League and Post War era being the two most common ones that spring to mind.
Hoban is class, and deserves all the credit hes getting. We were linked with him last summer and the talk was that he was asking for too much money and that ourselves Rovers and Dundalk all balked at his request. He has shown he was worth every penny and in hindsight I'd wished we'd backed a truck load of cash up to his house.
This record stuff is showing how little our national broadcaster knows about the League of Ireland and cares about accuracy. This would have been a great opportunity to say "Hoban has scored the most goals in a League of Ireland season since..." and show how long our league has been around and shed some light on a forgotten corner of the leagues history.
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