By Barry O'Donnell
AFTER the euphoria of last Sunday comes the scramble for tickets with the thoughts of the whole county turning to the Red Hands twin-pronged assault on All-Ireland Championship honours at Croke Park on September 21st.
The exploits of Mickey Harte and Raymond Munroe's teams at the weekend means that Tyrone have become the first Ulster county since Cavan way back in 1952 to feature in both Senior and Minor All-Ireland football deciders in the one season.
The dream double is very much alive following those exciting semi-final triumphs over Wexford (senior) and Meath (minor) played out in front of over 65,000 spectators, and now the stage is set for the mother of all 'Super Sundays'.
Perennial top dogs Kerry, chasing a three in a row, block Tyrone's passage to a third senior crown in five seasons, while Mayo will be the minors opposition in the traditional curtain raiser.
With the Tyrone fan base having been fairly sparse over the course of the summer, the inevitable bandwagon will crank through the gears in the coming days and weeks, as the hunt for those priceless entry tickets hots up.
Even though Croke Park boasts an impressive capacity of 82,000 these days, the ticket frenzy will be as intense as ever given this particular senior clash will probably determine whom history judges as the 'team of the decade'.
Both senior participants in the Final traditionally get an original allocation of around 8,000 tickets, with a follow up quota of around 1,500 to 2,000. This is rarely sufficient to cater for the huge demand, but county PRO Damian Harvey is hopeful that Tyrone will be accommodated for additional tickets this time around with the Under-18s also in action on the day.
" We would definitely expect a slightly bigger allocation than we got when we featured in previous All-Irelands, again it won't be a huge amount extra, but with the minors also being involved we'd like to think that will be taken into consideration.
" Again there is no firm details at this stage. We'll have a better idea early next week as to what allocation we should expect. They'll start to be printed off after that when we get a clearer idea of the numbers coming our way. It would only be guesswork to put a figure on it at the minute."
