Hurling fever has gripped the county to such an unprecedented extent ahead of Galway’s All-Ireland Final replay with Kilkenny on Sunday that under-fire GAA officials are estimating the demand for tickets is twice what it was for the drawn game three weeks ago.

Officials have been overwhelmed by the demand for the precious stubs, fuelled by a reduction in ticket prices, an increase in the number of children’s tickets, and the excitement generated by the thrilling drawn game on September 9.

But with the county’s allocation just four per cent up on the 13,000 received for the drawn game, Galway supporters are again being encouraged to trawl the country in search of tickets from neutral counties as up to 40,000 are expected to travel to Dublin for the re-match with the champions.

“It is crazy,” said Hurling Board Chairman Joe Byrne this week. “It is absolute bedlam. People are even more interested in travelling this time, because stand tickets have been reduced from €80 to €50. They also know there are more ‘adult and child’ tickets available, but we have distributed them all through the clubs at this stage.

“Being honest with you, the demand is nearly double what it was for the drawn game. A lot of clubs have been swamped by applications from members. Waiting three weeks was a long time, but we did need the time as we were not able to get the tickets out to the clubs until last Thursday.”

Mr Byrne’s own GAA club, Kinvara, had over 300 applications from members for an allocation of 170 tickets, resulting in disappointment for a significant number of club members who have spent the last week searching all over the country for tickets for the replay.

See full story and eight-page All-Ireland supplement in this week's Connacht Tribune.