Ulster's hot-shots

Michael Murphy was in tremendous form this season for Donegal

Donegal's young sharp-shooter Michael Murphy is the 2009 Ulster Hotshot after his lethal right foot contributed 34 points to county's total this season.

While Murphy managed only five points in the 2009 Ulster Championship his unfailing accuracy during the qualifiers offered Donegal some hope of resurrecting a bad start the campaign.

Donegal in fact had two people in the top five with Colm McFadden tossing in another 1-16 to the county's cause as these two players attributed more than half of the county's points this season.

Murphy had the glory of topping Ulster's all-time top marksman Paddy Bradley who accrued 3-14, 2-10 coming in the qualifiers.

Third place went to Paddy Cunningham on 0-22. On scoring 0-19, Cunningham was the top points-scorer in the Ulster Championship and the first Antrim player to have that honour since Andy McCallin back in 1970.

With McFadden in fourth place, Tyrone's Stephen O'Neill in fifth after the forward found of his old form in scoring 1-15, 11 of those coming in the run-up to defeat by Cork in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

Bradley is Ulster's all-time top marksman

However, players like Down legend Doherty did not have the advantage of playing through the 'back door', though he did get to play in 11 Ulster finals and in 44 Championship matches, with an average of 4.5 points per match.

2009 CHAMPIONSHIP TOP SCORERS (Including qualifiers) Michael Murphy .......... 0-34 (34) Paddy Bradley ........ 3-14 (23) Paddy Cunningham ... 0-22 (22) Colm McFadden ..... 1-16 (19) Stephen O'Neill ..... 1-15 (18)

As for Canavan, his records are almost identical having played in 49 Championship matches with an average of 4.4 points per game from 1989 to 2005.

He played in nine qualifying games, adding 1-25 to his total. Without this, Canavan's career total would be 8-167 (191) which would leave him in fourth place on the list.

He played in four less games than Doherty and did not complete a significant number of his Championship matches due to numerous injuries and the odd red card.

Last season Monaghan ran away with the Ulster hotshots with Thomas Freeman topping the scoring chart with a 1-15 total.