Christy O'Connor: Is the football public voting with their feet?
EMPTY SEATS: Brían O'Connell of Cavan scores a point despite the attention of Conor McManus. Pic: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
Was the small attendance at Cavan-Monaghan another sign of how the public are losing patience with the provincial championships?
Half an hour before the Cavan-Monaghan game began yesterday afternoon, presenter Joanne Cantwell asked Peter Canavan on live show if those GAA supporters that didn’t grow up in the province have ever fully appreciated the attitude and outlook that has always made Ulster distinct from everywhere else. “Do we even get it sometimes,” asked Cantwell.
“Well you wouldn’t get it if you were here today,” said Canavan. “There’s a very disappointing crowd. I’m amazed that there is only 4,000 or 5,000 here. It’s Monaghan-Cavan in the Ulster Championship. Normally, you’d think that Cavan themselves would bring 5,000 to a game of this stature. I know it’s early April but it’s disappointing. And I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.”
It is alarming but it wasn’t a shock given that only 5,000 tickets were sold just prior to the game. Liverpool-Man United was on at the same time, while the Monaghan Stages Rally was also taking place yesterday. The weather and the match being live on TV were other significant factors but such small numbers for an intense local derby was still a new low for a game of this magnitude.
The pandemic prevented anyone attending their 2020 championship clash but, when Cavan and Monaghan met on four occasions in the last decade, the average attendance was 14,500. When the sides met in 2019 in Breffni Park, a crowd of 13,496 showed up.
In that 2019 season, attendance figures were well below average for the decade. They came in at third-lowest in ten seasons, behind the 2011 and 2018 campaigns, which both coincided with ticket price increases.
Attendances were restricted in 2021 so there was always going to be a bounce in 2022 after supporters had been starved of action for two seasons. When Cavan played Donegal, and Monaghan met Derry in the 2022 Ulster semi-finals, crowds of 15,523 and 14,664 turned up.
Yet that was the last year of the old system, whereas the 2023 season was always going to be a more reliable indicator of how attendances would trend when the provincial championships were beginning at a much earlier date.
Last year’s average attendance in Ulster was 14,076, but that was bumped up by the massive 22,520 that crammed into Clones for the huge Armagh-Down derby. If you remove that game, and the Armagh-Derry Ulster final, the average from the other six games was 10,182.
Prior to yesterday, the lowest attendance at an Ulster Championship match (in a normal season) over the last 20 years was the 5,409 that showed up for Tyrone’s win over Antrim in 2019. Tyrone were expected to win easily – as they did, by 14 points – while the game being fixed for the Athletic Grounds further depleted the attendance. But a crowd of just over 8,000 for a Cavan-Monaghan match is a concern.
And, as Canavan noted, it may be a sign of attendances to come for the provincial championships.
In 2020, the Clare 1977-78 league winning panels were honoured with a civic reception by Clare County Council. Despite failing to make a championship breakthrough, losing successive Munster finals in those seasons, that Clare team is still fondly remembered in the county.
Their brand of play lit up that period in the late 1970s, leaving indelible memories for Clare supporters starved of success when defeating Kilkenny in both of those finals.
Despite the sides being in different provinces and having only met nine times in the senior championship, Clare still have a unique record with Kilkenny when it comes to national finals, at all levels.
In Clare’s history, they have contested 26 national finals, at minor, U21, league and All-Ireland – and they have met Kilkenny in 11 of those deciders.
The league has been their most popular meeting point for finals, with Saturday being their sixth meeting on that stage. In championship, their final meetings were restricted to just two – 1932 and 2002 – which were both won by Kilkenny.
In more recent years, Clare and Kilkenny clashed in the 2010 All-Ireland minor final (won by Kilkenny), and in the 2009 and 2012 All-Ireland U21 deciders, both won by Clare.
There were a number of links from those meetings to Saturday night’s game, but the vast majority were on the Clare side; John Conlon played in that 2009 U21 final, while Seadna Morey, David McInerney and Peter Duggan featured in the 2012 final. Morey and McInerney also played in the 2010 minor final, as did Cathal Malone, while Richie Reid came on in that game for Kilkenny.
Kilkenny do have a number of other players from those games still on the panel, but none featured on Saturday evening; Conor Fogarty, Cillian Buckley and Walter Walsh. Clare also had players from the current panel involved in those games - Tony Kelly and Paul Flanagan.
The last two All-Ireland semi-final defeats were extremely painful for Clare. Yet since the county’s modern crusade began with the 2009 All-Ireland U21 winning team, Clare have since beaten Kilkenny in three national finals, at U21 and senior.
For many supporters of an older generation though, beating them in a league final in Thurles rekindled some golden memories.
If Waterford were going to win a football championship match, it was likely to be against Tipperary. When Tipperary and Waterford met in last year’s Tailteann Cup, Tipp led by seven points at one stage of the first half but they were lucky to hang on for a one-point win. Waterford had three goal chances, only taking one, while Tipp failed to create a single goal chance all afternoon.
When the sides met a few weeks earlier in the Munster championship, Tipp ran out five-point winners but a controversial goal by Paudie Feehan in the dying seconds put a false layer of makeup on the complexion of the final score.
Waterford knew they weren’t that far away from their neighbours. When the sides met in the league this year, Waterford picked up their only point of the campaign. When they met again yesterday, Waterford finally got the job done to secure their first championship win since 2018, a first Munster championship victory since 2010, and a first championship win against Tipp since 1988.
It was an epic win for Waterford but it also underlined just how much Tipp have slipped since the 2020 Munster final victory; in the intervening years, Tipp have won just 10 of 34 league and championship games.
The panel has been crippled by retirements, injuries and departing players, but, while nine of the 20 players which featured in that historic Munster final are still part of the current squad, the majority of the 16 new players on this year’s panel don’t have anything like the same level of underage success to draw from.
After the feast from four provincial underage titles, and an All-Ireland minor crown, in the first six seasons of the last decade, the underage famine in the meantime has been startling; between 2016 and 2021, Tipp won just three of 14 minor games, and just two out of eight U21/20 matches.
So was this win for Waterford as much of a shock as it appears?
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