Kieran Shannon: Football public knows the championship should mean more than this 

Spectators realise the competitiveness or even integrity of the competition has been diluted.

NO SHOW: Dublin's Con O’Callaghan tries to evade Roscommon's Diarmuid Murtagh at Croke Park at the weekend. Pic: INPHO/Ken Sutton

Normally we write about sport we watched over the weekend but we have to make an exception here and focus on the one that we didn’t – and few others bothered to either.

If ever there was a red flag to signal the public’s apathy to the new football championship format it was the pitiful sight of all those empty seats and terraces in Croke Park last Saturday evening as the best team in the country kicked off the defence of their All-Ireland title against a fellow Division One team that had been the one side to get a result against them in last year’s championship.