It was an All Ireland Final that defied expectation, a helter skelter carnival of mishap, magic and madness and as the final whistle blew, the crowd exhaled as one in silence and exhaustion.
Any sporting analysis would suggest that a draw was the fairest result. Not one of the 82,270 in the crowd, or the more than one million watching across the country and around the world would feel they had been robbed.
For the sponsors it is an opportunity to go again to capture the hearts and wallets of the fans. AIB were the most visible of the Championship sponsors yesterday. It seemed that every spare centimetre of advertising space had been commandeered from the main train station of Connolly through the streets of Dublin’s North Inner City getting #TheToughest message across.
Even pitch side Roberto Wallace who had swapped places with Mayo’s Aidan O’Shea as part of the bank sponsored documentary on RTÉ television was the man on the microphone with Daithí O’Sé sending Mayo fans delirious with his profession of support for the team.
eir and Supervalu will be happy to have another two weeks to get their message of support across while AIG and Elverys will also be dipping into the discretionary budget to make more of their association with the two teams who duked it out, sometimes literally and will be back again on Saturday 1st October.
It is the sixth All Ireland Final Replay in 20 years with Football rematches needed in 1996 and 2000 and a run of three in Hurling from 2012 to 2014.
In each of the latter three ticket prices have reduced from €80 to €50 for the top priced stand tickets and intimations from Croke Park last night were that a similar gesture for fans was being considered.
The replay would still yield a bonus dividend for the Association, like to be in the region of a €2 million drop straight to the bottom line.
In a wider context it may also have an influence on the Dublin Bus dispute with a day of strike action planned for October 1st placing additional pressure on management and unions to find a solution.
RTÉ has already cleared the schedules for a 5pm throw-in and both camps, from players to fans, back room team to sponsors and all points in between are putting Plan B in motion this morning…
