News: The GAA is to investigate a significant shortfall in the attendance at yesterday's All-Ireland final.

More than 1,000 seats were left empty at the Cork-Galway decider in Croke Park as the official attendance was returned at 81,136 despite the official capacity of 82,300.

"All we can say at this stage," said GAA PRO Danny Lynch, "is that all the tickets did issue and we don't know why there were so many unfilled seats.

"There are always a couple of hundred unused tickets at a big match but this was clearly a more serious shortfall."

Another unusual aspect of the empty seats was that they were visible in clusters in both the Cusack and Hogan stands.

"We will be investigating the seat numbers and the identity of those to whom we issued the tickets before drawing any conclusions on the matter," he added.

There will be considerable anger among the huge number of supporters who were unable to access tickets for the eagerly anticipated climax to the hurling season.

Yesterday afternoon the approach roads to Croke Park, from Mountjoy Square and Fitzgibbon Street, featured dozens of people holding up plaintive signs looking for tickets. The absence of touts selling on the black market was further evidence of how tight the availability of tickets had been.

Three years ago there was a controversy after the 2002 hurling final between Clare and Kilkenny when an official attendance around 3,000 below capacity was recorded.

This was later explained as a turnstile error, an explanation substantiated by the lack of empty seats visible around the ground whereas yesterday's situation was plainly a shortfall.

* Mullinahone defeated reigning champions Portumna (Galway) by 6-7 to 0-15 to claim the 33rd AIB Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Hurling Sevens title at Glenalbyn on Saturday.

Portumna could find no way past former Tipperary star John Leahy in the Mullinahone goal. The winners led 3-2 by 0-9 at the break.