Leinster GAA hopeful Gaelic football rule changes can halt decline in the province

Leinster GAA says it's hopeful that rule changes in Gaelic football can arrest the continuing slide in interest in the inter-county game in the province.

Last year's Leinster football final between Louth and Dublin attracted a crowd of 23,113, which was the lowest crowd in the modern era, falling well short of the next lowest figure, the 28,157 who showed up to the 1991 decider between Meath and Laois.

In the heyday of the championship in the first decade of this century, the Leinster football final regularly topped 60,000 punters, with over 80,000 going through the turnstiles at the Jones' Road venue between 2005 and 2008.

While those figures might have been unusually high in the fullness of history of the Leinster Championship, the current crowds are low enough that calls for the game to be taken to other venues in the province no longer seem contrarian.

"We would certainly be expecting upwards of 40,000," was GAA spokesperson's Alan Milton's view, speaking to The Irish Times, ahead of the 2010 decider between Meath and Louth.

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That game is noteworthy as the only final not to feature the Dubs in the last 20 years, but now, 15 years later, the fixture is only attracting a crowd of barely half that amount, even with the Metropolitans involved on an annual basis.

The lessening of importance of the competition in relation to the All-Ireland Championships, combined with a dominant period for Dublin alongside a failure of the traditional provincial challengers to perform inside or