What's the point of it all? We've already had a bit of an existential crisis today after watching the All Ireland hurling final and the behaviour of a large proportion of the Kilkenny fans would seem to feed into that rather nicely.
Galway had the numbers yesterday, there's no doubt about that. However, even accounting for that, the amount of fans still in Croke Park as Kilkenny celebrated their 11th All Ireland hurling title since the turn of the millennium was noticeably paltry.
Perhaps Kilkenny fans are just more reserved with their passion but quite a few people are suggesting that the Cat's are taking things for granted to the detriment of the game as a spectacle.
Pity Kilkenny fans didn't hang around to celebrate with their team during their lap of honour #GAA pic.twitter.com/TsAksWalhL
— Darren Frehill (@Darrenfrehill) September 6, 2015
Kilkenny fans looked bored at their win tbh, the lap of victory was fairly dull with all the empty seats, what an unexciting win altogether
— k0n (@kaateoneill) September 6, 2015
@amandafennelly @Darrenfrehill what's that got to do with hundreds if not thousands of kk fans streaming out of stadium during presentation?
— Martin (@breenmartinj) September 6, 2015
Twitter tells me thousands of #Kilkenny fans left before the presentation. Now THAT wouldn't have happened had #Galway won.
— Conor Pope (@conor_pope) September 6, 2015
Thousands of Kilkenny fans not even staying for the presentation!!
— Paul Morris (@stick1990) September 6, 2015
This really annoys me. They deserved the win of course but Galway fans would have been ECSTATIC if they won today (much like Mayo yesterday)
— Niamh Breslin (@NiamhyB) September 6, 2015
@Darrenfrehill Worst supporters in GAA! Loads were out the door before speech & presentation.
— Reginald Tower (@ReginaldsTower) September 6, 2015
@Darrenfrehill they didn't even stay for the trophy presentation. Most left at final whistle and not even smiling. #miserable
— Gerard Broderick (@gerbroderick) September 6, 2015
Kilkenny fans are more used to success than anyone else in the country, there's no doubt about that. Similarly, it's simply human nature that a long awaited win will be celebrated more vigorously than a win that is almost expected at this stage.
It's fair to assume that Galway fans would have stayed back in greater numbers had they claimed the title but they didn't. Kilkenny did and we can only imagine their fans are suitably happy with that today, even if it's wasn't in Croker where they showed it off.
