THE Dubs and the Royals are now just four days away from their latest rumble in the summer jungle, but GAA chiefs fear it will be the lowest attendance at a Dublin/Meath championship match since the new Croke Park was completed eight years ago.

The Leinster Council is anticipating a crowd of between 55,000 and 60,000 for Sunday’s SFC semi-final double-header, which throws in with Dublin/Meath at 4pm followed by Westmeath/Louth at the unusually late time of 5.50pm.

The Council is keen to stress that it’s early days yet, with Dublin clubs only collecting their allocations today and Meath fans only focussing in on the replay now, having travelled in big numbers to Tullamore for the Laois replay only last Saturday night.

However, even though there could yet be a late surge in ticket sales, it is abundantly clear that the ‘full house’ signs won’t be erected outside GAA HQ this Sunday.

This would represent a significant downturn compared to the most recent Dublin/Meath collisions: the fixture attracted 75,250 last year, 78,002 for the drawn clash in 2007 and 82,206 for the replay.

These were all Leinster quarter-final fixtures and, like this Sunday, formed part of a double-header. Back in 2005 – at the launch of Paul Caffrey’s reign coupled with the end of the Seán Boylan era – you had 65,865 for another quarter-final encounter and you had a very similar crowd (65,868) for a 2002 Leinster semi-final when the new Hogan Stand had been opened.

There are several contributing factors to the likely decrease in attendance this weekend. Clearly, Pat Gilroy’s new-look Dubs have yet to convince the floating Sky Blue supporter to come out in the same massive numbers that followed the team during the second half of the noughties – especially after their dismal first half display against Wexford.

In their public utterances too, both Gilroy and his players have done their best to downplay Dublin’s prospects this summer. In an interview with the Evening Herald today, new full-back Rory O’Carroll admitted: “We were honest with ourselves at the start of the season.

We said winning an All-Ireland is not a realistic possibility, especially after the last couple of years. So we’re concentrating on our performance and anything after Leinster is a bonus really.”

Other attendance factors include (predictably) the effects of the recession and ‘live’ TV overkill – there are three championship matches being broadcast next Sunday afternoon, starting with Galway/Sligo and Dublin/Meath on TV3, followed by Westmeath/Louth on RTE.