Kieran Shannon: Biggest rivalries in Gaelic football no longer the biggest rivalries in the sport

Galway-Mayo can buck that trend. In 2022 their first-round game in Connacht was the most anticipated and talked about provincial championship game in the country, just as it was in 2018, and that showed at the turnstiles.

BUCK THE TREND: Can Galway and Mayo buck the trend when it comes to crowd attendence which have dipped in numbers over the last few years. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

When the Cork hurlers last won the All Ireland, along the way they beat Tipperary in the Munster final in front of 43,500 in Páirc Uí Chaoimh – essentially the same attendance figure that will witness the same counties play in the same venue this weekend.

Yet though it was a sellout and the counties formed the most storied rivalry in the GAA, Cork-Tipp was hardly the biggest draw of the provincial championships that summer of 2005.