Just under 4,000 paying spectators and a handful of journalists. Not a typical Croke Park final day. There is more there for the Cumann Na Bunscoil finals. Yet for the fourth, third and second tier hurling finals last weekend, there was a distinct lack of fanfare.
The Croke Park powers did a smart thing though, by looping the noise of the small attendance in Hogan Stand, all around the stadium. It was a bit disrupting at times, but it made the place less eerier. Croke Park is a weird place when it is quiet. You hear everything - even if you don't want it.
Less than 24 hours later 72,000 people crammed in to see the best Leinster Final in manys a year. It just shows you the value of the Dubs, although they haven't been getting Hogan Stand tickets at all this year with the upper cusack full of blue and all the lower tiers in snow white.
My man of the match was Ciaran Whelan - great half of football from someone people thought was too old for the battle.I reported on the hurling finals for all national newspapers in the country.
