Every season throws up wondrous statistical titbits. Here we give you the 2014 Championship in 13 terrific facts...
Tomás retains the record for all-time championship appearances with 88, while Marc draws level with Darragh on 81. No other player in championship history has reached 80. Great stat from Kerry Eye.
Shefflin has only lost eight times for Kilkenny since 1999. He has lost three times to Cork, the 1999 and 2004 All-Ireland finals and the 2013 quarter-final, three times to Galway, the 2001 and 2005 All-Ireland semi-finals and the 2012 Leinster Final. He has lost once to Wexford in the 2004 Leinster Final and once to Tipp in the 2010 final.
He missed Kilkenny's loss to Dublin in the 2013 Leinster semi-final through injury.
They beat Laois by 11 points, Wexford and Meath by 16 points and then Monaghan by 17 points.
He led Kerry to the U21 title in 1998, guided them to senior All-Irelands in 2004, 2006 and 2009 and this year helped the minors to Kerry's first All-Ireland in twenty years.
Longford are Round 1 qualifier specialists. They have beaten Leitrim (2009), Mayo (2010), Cavan (2011), Derry (2012), Limerick (2013), and Derry again this year.
Round 2 of the qualifiers is Longford's Everest. They have fallen to Kerry (2009), Down (2010), Tyrone (2011), Limerick (2012), Wexford (2013), before getting slaughtered in Thurles this year.
On the 5th of January, Offaly squeezed past UCD 0-13 to 0-12. They drew their final match in Division 3 and lost every other competitive game of 2014.
In 2012, Donegal beat Mayo 2-11 to 0-13, the following year, Dublin eked out Mayo 2-12 to 1-14 while this year, Kerry defeated Donegal 2-9 to 0-12.
2002 was the last time before that a team who scored less points won out. It also happened in 1994, 1995 and 1996.
Hasn't happened since Dublin beat Cork in Pairc ui Chaoimh in 1983.
Between the 10th and 35th minute against Laois, Galway conceded 0-16 to 1-4. Between the 52nd and 64th minute against Kilkenny, they conceded 1-7 without reply. And in the final 15 minutes of the Tipp match, they lost 2-10 to 0-1.
Galway, who did some things right this year (as opposed to nothing right in 2013), are, to quote Martin Breheny, heavy bleeders.
He grabbed a hat-trick against Galway, two in the semi-final against Cork, two more against Offaly in the qualifier, and another two in the replay against Kilkenny.
Offaly GAA endured an unremittingly horrible 2014, conceding 5-32 against Kilkenny and then a somewhat more respectable 5-25 against Tipp.
The other two were 1995 and 1996, when he took a sabbatical as Kildare manager. Dermot Earley managed them in the interim between Micko's two spells.
