September Road

Top SHC Scorers 2006: Henry Shefflin may have needed an extra game, but yesterday he finally overtook Eoin Kelly at the top …

Top SHC Scorers 2006: Henry Shefflin may have needed an extra game, but yesterday he finally overtook Eoin Kelly at the top of the hot-shot leaderboard.

Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny)2-46 (52)

Eoin Kelly (Tipperary)3-38 (47)

James Young (Laois)1-33 (36)

READ MORE

Niall Gilligan (Clare)3-25 (36)

David Curtin (Dublin)0-34 (34)

Joe Deane (Cork)0-32 (32)

Hopeful travel on paths of glory...

The number of hurling supporters willing to follow their county all over the country in league and championship fare never fails to amaze us.

And the majority who go to every game are also following underage sides, the football team and, of course, their home club.

For many, the summer entirely revolves around GAA matches. It's not the players who should be looking to go professional, it's the hardcore fans.

So we thought it would be interesting to calculate the distances that were required to follow each of the 12 counties in this season's hurling championship.

The miles and kilometres below are the return journeys from the main town in each respective county to the championship venues (ie the 317 miles for Westmeath is the distance from Mullingar to Portlaoise and back, Mullingar to Galway and back and Mullingar to Tullamore and back - the three matches actually held in Mullingar are not counted).

Laois had only one game away from home soil, while both Waterford and Offaly played championship matches this summer in five separate venues.

Quote of the Weekend: "We won the Walsh Cup, the League, the Leinster championship, and now the All-Ireland. But I think if it was the Mickey Mouse Cup out there we'd have won that too. We want to win everything." - John Tennyson.