A paltry figure.
You would expect for some counties, a day out in Croke Park would be a big deal.
The teams who made up the Division 3 and Division 4 league finals were Tipperary, Westmeath, Louth and Wexford.
Finals at the Drumcondra venue don’t exactly come around too often for these sides so you would expect that the opportunity to win some silverware in the country’s greatest stadium would entice fans of the respective counties to turn up in numbers.
That wasn’t the case on Saturday as a measly 5,000 fans showed up for both games.
That’s 5,000 supporters between four teams.
In finals.
And on the nicest day of the year thus far.
This topic was soon raised on the latest episode of The GAA Hour (06:15 onwards).
Host, Colm Parkinson, was originally thinking of doing two podcasts with one concentrating on the Division 3 and 4 finals but thought better of it when he saw the support that was shown on Saturday.
“Five thousand between four teams bothered their holes to go to Croke Park to support their teams. I thought it was absolutely disgraceful,” Parkinson said.
“You could hear the players talking on the field, there was no sense of occasion. These are league finals. I thought ‘I’m not doing podcasts for supporters who won’t go.”
Parkinson further took aim Westmeath and Louth, as he cited their close proximity to Dublin as further reason to be disappointed in the level of support from both counties.
“Westmeath and Louth, I’m looking at them straight away because they’re close to Dublin.
“I know Westmeath have been in Leinster finals and they might see a Division 4 final as below them but Jesus, you still have to go and support your team when they’re in Croke Park in a final.”
Retired Meath inter-county footballer, Cian Ward, made the excellent point that this is likely the only opportunity for these teams to secure silverware and should support their sides as a result.
“If these supporters are craving success, this was the only opportunity for success. So to me this is the biggest game of their season.
In addition to this, the two finals played on Saturday were both high-scoring and very entertaining games of football which make the absence of spectators all that little more difficult to stomach.
Just under 54,000 showed up for the Division 1 final on Sunday so perhaps the GAA may not be too concerned over the poor turnout on Saturday.
