Allianz Football league final attendance the second biggest in over 20 years

Before Dublin's semi-final comeback got under way Croke Park was facing the prospect of a Cork-Derry final and all of its attendant "selective appeal", as there wasn't even an obvious geographical alternative apart from Parnell Park in Dublin where Kerry and Derry contested the 2008 final.

As things turned out the Dublin-Derry final and the Division Two curtain-raiser between Monaghan and Donegal drew the second biggest attendance in over 20 years, 38,841.

The biggest crowd in that time was the Armagh-Wexford final in 2005 with 46,445.

The only other occasions in the past 20 years that the final has broken 30,000 have been Dublin’s appearances in three of the past four seasons and the Tyrone-Laois decider of 2003.

The Division Two finals, played as part of a double bill at Croke Park in nine of the last 11 years have obviously contributed to the size of the crowd with the high point of nine years ago also featuring a dramatic encounter between Monaghan and Meath.

Monaghan's presence last weekend suggests that the county has quite an impact on the crowd but in 2009 despite their facing Cork in the Division Two final the attendance was just 20,597 although in fairness the Division One final was between Kerry and Derry, meaning that three of the counties involved were from well over 100 miles away.

Past crowds
The past 20 years has also seen some very poor crowds attending finals. When Derry and Kerry played in Parnell Park six years ago, the crowd was smaller than 10,000 – as it was in 2006 when in an attempt to avoid a clash with the Munster-Leinster Heineken Cup semi-final in Lansdowne Road the GAA scheduled Kerry and Galway for a tea-time throw-in in Limerick's Gaelic Grounds with just 7,598 turning up.

Meanwhile the GAA yesterday unveiled a new sponsor for the senior All-Ireland football championship to replace the Ulster Bank as one of the three official partners.

GAAGO™ is the new subscription-based online streaming service being launched by the GAA and RTÉ Digital and will join eircom and SuperValu as the third brand in the GAA's multi-sponsor model. The deal is believed to be for just a year in order to raise awareness of the new service, which will be available outside of Ireland and will offer live and on-demand GAA games starting during the 2014 championship.

Subscribers will be able to view the games online on any internet-enabled device including mobile phones, tablet devices and laptops. Full details will be announced in early May. The hurling championship sponsors are unchanged: Etihad, Centra and Liberty Insurance.

Finally Tipperary All-Ireland winning hurler Flor Coffey was laid to rest yesterday after funeral Mass in the Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles. A native of Boherlahan, he joined the Tipperary senior panel in 1943 having played minor (1937 and 1938) and junior (1939 and 1940) for the county.

Flor Coffey won two All-Ireland senior medals, lining out at left corner-back in 1945 against Kilkenny and at centre-back on the 1949 team which defeated Laois in the final.

National Football League attendances

All at Croke Park except where stated

2014 Dublin v Derry 38,841
2013 Dublin v Tyrone 33,134
2012 Cork v Mayo 22,827
2011 Cork v Dublin 36,438
2010 Cork v Mayo 27,005
2009 Kerry v Derry 20,597
2008 Derry v Kerry 9,732
Parnell Park, Dublin
2007 Donegal v Mayo 29,433
2006 Kerry v Galway7,598
Gaelic Grounds Limerick
2005 Armagh v Wexford 46,445
2004 Kerry v Galway 28,072
2003 Tyrone v Laois 30,293
2002 Tyrone v Cavan 25,159
St Tiernach's Park Clones
2001 Mayo v Galway 22,623
2000 Derry v Meath (draw) 25,743
Derry v Meath (replay) 12,000
St Tiernach's Park Clones
1999 Cork v Dublin 10,000
Páirc Uí Chaoimh
1998 Offaly v Derry 22,531
1997 Kerry v Cork 28,795
Páirc Uí Chaoimh
1996 Derry v Donegal 24,298
1995 Derry v Donegal 28,392

Final records
Aggregate – 1993
Dublin v Donegal (draw) 51,179
Dublin v Donegal (replay) 59,703
One match – 1964
Dublin v Down (home final) 70,126