Despite a "really impressive" game at the All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football yesterday, there was a "disappointing" number of supporters in the crowd.

That's according to host Shane Coleman, who attended Croke Park yesterday to watch Dublin secure their fifth title in eight years against Kerry.

"It was billed as a 50-50 game, but it ended up being nothing of the sort – Dublin just came straight out of the box, they were fantastic," he said.

"Hannah Tyrrell produced a game of the ages for Dublin. She scored eight points in the first half.

"Honestly, it was up there with Maurice Fitzgerald in the 1997 final for Kerry – even David Clifford and Shane Walsh last year – she was that good, she was absolutely brilliant."

Atmosphere

Shane said there was a "great atmosphere" in Croke Park during the final.

"There was a moment just before the end – there were about five or six seconds left. Kerry had come back into the game but it was clear they had run out of time," he said.

"The clock was running down, Dublin were four points up and Carla Rowe burst through and you knew she was going to score, you knew she wasn't going to miss.

"She duly knocked it over the bar and the roar around the place was just extraordinary."

'Lump in my throat'

Shane attended the game with a group of girls from his club – Na Fianna.

"I had a lump in my throat," he said.

"I just thought it was so fabulous for those young women to have role models like Leah Caffrey, Carla Rowe, Hannah Tyrrell.

"How brilliant for them to have role models like that? Elite sportswomen performing to the best of their abilities.

"20 or 30 years ago, that didn't exist."

Crowd

Shane said he was "slightly disappointed" by the number of attendees to such a significant game.

"45,000 – it's a decent crowd, but, it's well off the high of 56,000 we got for Dublin vs Galway in 2019," he said.

"A little bit of momentum has been lost and I think we need to get behind women's sport even more.

"There's been huge progress, we've seen with the support that the Irish women's team got in the World Cup but we know we can do more."

'Do better'

Shane referenced a recent study from Newstalk, which found that four in five people had attended a men's elite sporting event in the last year, while only one in four people had attended a women's event.

"I think we can do better," he said.

"Where was the Blue Army yesterday? There were lots of Dublin supporters but they tended to be young women, girls and parents.

"The Kerry support was okay, I thought it could have been better.

"I just think we need to get behind women's sport and I think we need to walk the walk and not just talk to talk.

"A game like yesterday deserved 60,000, 70,000 or 80,000 at it – it was that good. I thought the quality was that good."