Limerick is a hurling county & footballers’ relegation really hurt our fanbase

GALVIN SAYS IT’S NO SURPRISE ONLY 1200 PAID

FOR just the third time ever tomorrow, the Dublin team bus will be pointed for Limerick.

The first was in Askeaton back in March 1993, when Dublin scored a six-point win, and the next was in February 2007, when they escaped from the Gaelic Grounds with a nervy one-point win.

Just like now, that game took place on a big Six Nations weekend though there were much greater historical connotations attached 16 years ago.

The Limerick-dublin game took place on Saturday, February 10 – like a lot of League games that weekend – in order to avoid a clash with the Ireland-france game the next day, the first rugby game to be played at Croke Park, with most Sunday fixtures kept out of the way of the big kick-off at 3pm.

The previous weekend, Dublin and Tyrone had played out a League opener in front of 81,678 – a record attendance for a game in the competition, as Diarmuid Connolly and Ger Brennan made their debuts in what was the first ever floodlit fixture at Croke Park.

But just 1,227 paid through the turnstiles at the Gaelic Grounds seven days later. You’d shudder to think what the turnout would have been had the fixture actually gone up against the rugby.

Former Limerick midfielder John Galvin reflected: “I suppose the only time we had a big support was, I wouldn’t even say it was massive, but when we got to Munster finals you had somewhere between 25,000 and 35,000 people there.

“But besides that, we just wouldn’t have a massive football following. Look, we’re in a hurling county and I think, back in 2003/ 2004, we had built up a decent following and then we got relegated and it all went away again and it never got back up.”

At the time, Dublin were establishing a stranglehold on

Leinster under manager

Paul ‘Pillar’ Caffrey that lasts to this day, but were still lacking the magic dust to take themselves beyond the likes of Kerry, Tyrone and even Mayo at the time.

Limerick had come unbearably close to a first provincial title since 1896 under Liam Kearns on more than one occasion and a rebuilding job was passed over to fellow Kerry man Mickey Ned O’sullivan after he left in 2005.

Still, Limerick were at a decent level, competing in a 16-team Division One (divided into two eights) in 2007 having won promotion the year before.

“When Liam Kearns