Gary O'Neill: The heartbeat keeping Shamrock Rovers ticking over

Can you name the Shamrock Rovers player who has played an integral role in their four in a row success and never once made the PFAI Premier Division Team of the Year?

Here’s a hint - the Kerryman wears a jersey number made famous by a Corkman and has scored more goals in Europe over the past four seasons than in the League of Ireland.

Despite being a consistent performer in the Shamrock Rovers engine room for the past four and a half seasons, Gary O'Neill tends to fly under the radar for casual observers of the league.

If you trawl through the statistics, the former UCD midfielder features at the top of only one metric, passing.

Data from League of Ireland Summary Reports courtesy of InStat (2019) and WyScout (2023) highlight his passing accuracy of above 90% as the most accurate in the league.

In 2019, he was the only player to complete over 2,000 passes in the season at an average of 71 completed passes per game - 13% of the Shamrock Rovers total.

Fast forward to 2023 and he has dropped to third place in the league for passes attempted but still averages 13% of Rovers’ passes and has a passing percentage above Seán Hoare and Jack Byrne who feature higher in the attempted passes column.

His tackling (4th), interceptions (7th) and clearances (7th) put him in the top ten of Shamrock Rovers players, according to sofascore.com.

And he has also averaged a shot on target every ten games or so in the 2023 league, while contributing one assist.

According to transfermarkt.com data, he was involved in a goal in almost half his UCD First Division games (30 goals and 15 assists) and 5 (2 goals, 3 assists) in 19 Premier Division games for the Students.

Since arriving at Tallaght Stadium, he has netted only once in the league for the Hoops and racked up a quartet of assists in over 110 league games.

Fan favourite

The impressive performances he has put in over the century of appearances has led the Shamrock Rovers website to state:

“Many Rovers fans have said that he is one of the best signings the club has made in recent times and is very much a favourite amongst the fanbase…. .”

Based on statistics alone, bar an exceptional ability to pass the ball, O’Neill doesn't record numbers which threaten the top 20 players in any of the metrics measurable by data.

Yet, he is one of the first names on the team sheet for the league champions every week- predominantly in a midfield role, though he did fill in as a central defender early in the season. Suspensions to Roberto Lopes, Dan Cleary and Lee Grace meant a repositioning for the Kerryman.

In the Shamrock Rovers squad, only Lee Grace played more minutes domestically (3,610 v 3,529) in 2023 and O’Neill played almost 50% more minutes than the next closest central midfielder, Markus Poom (3,529 v 2,466)

In an interview with The Irish Mirror in 2022, Grace spoke of O’Neill's ability to always show for the ball and very rarely lose possession.

In a March 2023 with Shamrock Rovers’ Matchday Programme, Grace doubled down on this when discussing O’Neill’s temporary relocation as a central defender.

"He is more than able to play there and we never doubted his ability to play that position. The gaffer wouldn’t pick him there if he didn’t trust him.

"We didn’t give up too many chances. He did brilliantly and he is very good on the ball which allowed him to start a few attacks for us."

Boss Stephen Bradley had previously been similarly praiseworthy when speaking to the Irish Sun in 2021 about how having O’Neill in the team “definitely improves us”.

Though, if this isn’t visible through statistics, how does he do it?

Goals

We've seen him score clutch goals in the cup and in Europe – notably the 2019 FAI Cup Final (with the winning penalty in the shoot-out) and against SK Brann and FC Shkupi - but what marks him out is what he does on a regular basis for the Hoops.

In Shamrock Rovers’ 4-0 win over Dundalk at Oriel Park earlier this year, Rory Gaffney’s opener came from a move started by an O’Neill interception.

And when Rovers were 2-0 down against Shelbourne in April, O’Neill won a header in midfield which Gaffney gave to Graham Burke and he found the top corner to kickstart the comeback.

The same month, 17 minutes into the first half against Sligo Rovers and Con Murphy's line on LOITV, ‘Gary O’Neill gets back to do what Gary O'Neill does so well’ followed the midfielder's snuffing out of a Bit O’ Red attack.

From Alan Mannus’ subsequent goal kick, Johnny Kenny latched onto a lofted through ball and opened the scoring.

In May, with Rovers currently holding a 1-0 advantage over Derry City at the Brandywell, it was his header from a Brian Maher clearance which allowed Jack Byrne to lob the stranded keeper from distance.

June and July saw O’Neill miss four league games with Rovers recording a single win in his absence.

On the back of disappointing results in Europe, O’Neill was back rallying the troops in the next league game against Cork City as the Hoops went unbeaten for their final 11 league games post Europe (seven wins and four draws) and picking up seven clean sheets.

Throughout this run he could be found regularly asking questions of his defence if an opposition player got a shot away.

At the other end of the field, he was often one of the first to celebrate with a goalscoring teammate.

Why?

Because he was often hovering around the edge of the penalty area, offering himself as a passing option to back up his colleagues as well as screening potential opposition breakaways.

In a Shamrock Rovers ‘Clear The Head’ video interview, O’Neill spoke with former Rovers defender Graham Gartland about the pride he felt at Aaron McEneff, Jack Byrne and Graham Burke getting the opportunity to train with the Ireland senior squad as it reflected the level he played at.

Gartland also referred back to a prior Clear the Head episode with Lee Grace where they spoke about the need for teams to have players carry out the defensive duties to allow others to showcase their attacking prowess and how these players help drive the team forward through their energy and workrate.

Speaking with the LOI Central podcast in September, O’Neill elaborated on the importance of workrate, explaining: “I don't think you'll ever have watched any of our games and think that Rovers haven't shown up in terms of attitude wise or a will to win.

“I don't think that will ever be questioned with this group.”

Despite not featuring in Team’s of the Year nor dominating measurable statistics, O’Neill's importance to the team - one of the most successful in the modern era - can never be questioned.

In a 2022 Get To Know The Players video, Shamrock Rovers goalkeeper Alan Mannus says of O’Neill, “he's such a cool guy and everyone loves to be around Gary.”

Everyone you'd suspect with the exception of opposition midfielders.

Gary O'Neill in numbers: 

The 2019 season, his first at the club, saw O’Neill record the highest number of successful passes in the Premier Division with 2028 at a pass completion rate of 92% - the only player to complete over 2,000 passes and the only player in the top 20 passers to achieve a passing rate of over 90%. (Courtesy InStat)

With teammates Lee Grace, Pico Lopes and Jack Byrne the only other players to even attempt more than 2,000 passes that league campaign, Shamrock Rovers’ style of play has been evident over the past five seasons. According to the Instat Summary Report from the 2019 Premier Division, the 598 passes Shamrock Rovers attempted on average per 90 minutes (at an 83% completion rate) was a league high. The division average, as a comparison, was 467 attempts (of which 78% were completed)

Rovers' average distance per pass was 18.3m with a league average of 20.6m.

Come 2023 and what has changed? According to Wyscout, Shamrock Rovers continue to lead the number of passes per game with 465, a drop of over 130 passes per game, while the league's average fell to 358 (a similar drop of over 100 passes per game).

And what of the accuracy? Rovers increased their proficiency of passing from 83 to 84% accuracy while the league average also rose by one percentage point to 79%.

The top four most prolific average passers in the league remain Shamrock Rovers players with Seán Hoare taking the number one spot averaging 65.3 passes per 90 minutes, just ahead of Jack Byrne (64.17) and Gary O'Neill (61.08) with Lee Grace (61.17) rounding out fourth place.

O’Neill’s passing accuracy of 92% remains the highest in the top ten with Lee Grace's 89% narrowly behind.

Ben McCormack joins Waterford as striker Ronan Coughlan departs https://t.co/1sIHOO8Sibpic.twitter.com/eS0wqwRQre

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) December 30, 2023