I had meant to check this before now but it kept slipping my mind and I see that Anthony Hennigan in the Western People has now beat me to it, i.e. to see how close Conor Mortimer is to cracking Joe Corcoran’s long-standing record as the all-time highest scorer for Mayo. A truncated version of Anthony’s piece in the Western is here (the Western have now, I see, taken to putting only part of their weekly content on their website) and there’s also a piece about this in Hogan Stand.
According to Anthony, Conor is now just 14 points away from topping Jinkin’ Joe’s scoring record for the county. Given that Mort has been averaging a bit over four points a game since returning to action at the start of the year, we can expect him to hit this notable landmark fairly soon. Around the middle of the second half in the match against Cork, I’d reckon.
Before anyone starts piping up about how there are more matches played nowadays compared to back in Joe’s heyday, Anthony’s figures also show that Conor has a sporting chance of smashing the Ardnaree man’s record with a game (maybe two) to spare. Joe amassed his total of 20-355 in 94 league and championship matches between 1958 and 1974 while up to last weekend Conor has lined out for the county 91 times in the two competitions since his debut back in 2002, scoring 14-360. And counting.
fair play Conoreen.I have to admit i certainly wouldnt have put him down for 14 goals though…very impressive indeed!
western website has always been shocking articles normally go up days late, i presume that was to ensure we bought the print edition, which is very easy to come by here in london.
conor will surely chip in with a few more goals this year, whether it be from the bench or as a starter , he has been a great servant.
An American politican said once of a wanna be president who compared himself to the great JFK “Sir, I knew jack Kennedy and Sir, you are no Jack Kennedy”. The would be president slipped away and never made the Oval office.
I suppose if Conor played for kerry he would have won an all Ireland by now. he is a good footballer, to paraphrase the great Dunphy ” a good footballer…not a great footballer”. I saw Joe Corcoran play, it was a privilege and Conor good and all as he is , he aint as good as Jinking Joe. Now don’t splutter into your tea or choke on a biscuit…its only my own opinion folks!
John Cuffe, I couldn’t agree more with you and I couldn’t have put it any better.
Ted – it’d probably surprise you even more to know that three of those 14 came in a single game – against Tyrone in the league in 2007.
John – that famous JFK putdown actually occurred in the 1988 Vice-Presidential debate between Lloyd Bentsen and Dan Quayle – you can see it here. Between that and his spelling ‘potatato’ with an ‘e’on a school trip (which is here) more or less finished Quayle as a serious politician, even if he did end up as VP following that 1988 campaign. I wouldn’t put Conor in the same category as Dan Quayle and his scoring record speaks for itself!
definitely one of the great debate moments not like nowadays when they are nearly all scripted and the candidate waits for their chance to pounce, bentson gave that one to quayle on the fly and it was a zinger.. you would always wonder what kind of president dukakis would have been..
and fair enough john cuffe if mort is no joe corcoran but he certainly is a conor mortimer and that will be accolade enough for the next pretender to the throne.
Well said Roger I have never heard Conor aspire to being anyone except his individual self and that he is.
That he may well exceed The Great Joe’s scoring record is a mighty feat. Meas mór don beirt.
The rest of that Western Piece is this:
Mortimer needs to score 14 points over the course of the next three games against Down (h), Donegal (a) and Cork (h) to set the new standard, but either way it would seem certain that the man who now plays his club football with Parnells in Dublin will become Mayo’s all time top scoring inter-county senior footballer 10 years after he made his senior debut in the 2002 National Football League against Down. And with the Mourne men the visitors to McHale Park next Sunday, what odds that Mortimer could put a serious dent in the points tally he requires to break the record?
Having missed the entire 2011 season due to injury, the former DCU and University of Jordanstown student returned to action by scoring 0-5 (4f) and 0-2f in this season’s opening league games against Laois and Dublin (abandoned) before contributing 0-4 (3f) to the Mayo cause in the Morgan Athletic Grounds last Saturday night. At the start of this season, as best as the records allow, it was estimated that Joe Corcoran scored approximately 67% of his scores from play compared to Conor Mortimer’s 55%. Mortimer has not been able to improve on those stats so far this year, but none of what either player is claimed to have scored takes into consideration what they might have also have scored throughout their careers in various tournament, FBD League or challenge games.
Thanks for that Digits. It’s not completely clear from that extract whether or not the two points from the abandoned Dublin game have been included in the total that Anthony has calculated. My guess is that if they have they shouldn’t be, which may mean that the target Mort has to aim at is 16 rather than 14. I haven’t time at the minute to look at this in more detail but will do so later on.
Both players, Joe and Connor have scored many more time in tournament games and challegs, one remembers the Gael Linn, Tournament, Cahill Cup Tournament, Gaelic Weekly Tournament, Wembley Tournament etc., etc., in Joe’s case. At the moment we only appear to have the F.B.D. tournament but Connor has scored over and under in that too.
Remember that in Joe corcorans time, if your team was beaten in championship that was it, till the following year!
In terms of Conor he has had the opportunity to play in more championship games due to the back door system. And don’t forget that Conor has racked up massive scores playing the likes of new York. Did mighty Joe receive those chances?? The simple answer is no. Just take it into context and realise the times That county teams are currently experiencing. Hopefully cillian o Connor will stay injury free for the next decade and more and break the record again!!!
patriot , when mayo are beaten in the championship nowadays that tends to be it for us as well, we rarely progress in the “back door” but i see your point
Grt scoring record for both Mort and Corcoran. Its some achievement to score so much. Any team news for Down match? Is it just me or is there a media blackout on Mayo at the moment? We are three (and a half) games into the league and it still feels a bit sleepy.
Sure Connor has only played for Mayo for 10 years while Joe had 16 years in the green and red.
We should leave it til 2018 to do that count!
the media are definately keeping away from us at
the moment,id love if someone could give me a possible reason why.i read an article in the irish news yesterday in which jh talked about how the emphises this year is on gettin a tougher more physical edge into our game. last year we were second only to kilkenny in goals against in all 4 leagues,0 against in2012…keep it up boys and theyll have no choice but talk about and show us.it will be very hard for assholes like martin mc hugh to say positive things about our boys,
i think Joe Corcoran was a better player than Mortimer i saw Joe play manty times and he was a genius and so accurate from frees hope you read this Joe hope you are well