By John Fallon

Galway GAA officials have ruled out a swap with neighbours Mayo for All-Ireland final tickets as the two counties bid to bring the Liam MacCarthy and Sam Maguire cups back to Connacht for the first time in the same year.

This is only the third time that two Connacht counties have reached the All-Ireland finals in the same year and with Mayo trying to bridge a 66-year gap and Galway looking for their first hurling title since 1988, demand for tickets in the west is unprecedented.

But Galway chief executive John Hynes said that organising a swap with neighbours Mayo was not an option as they also needed to cater for the football fraternity in their own county as well.

"Some counties do deals but we have to be respectful to the football community as well. The upcoming Mayo against Dublin final on September 17 is also going to be a fantastic day and the demand for tickets there will be huge.

"We have a big football community in Galway and it would not be fair if we were to give away those football tickets and swap them out for hurling tickets and deny them an opportunity to go to the showcase of football this year so we will not be entering into any swaps with counties," said Hynes.

Both Galway and Mayo reached the All-Ireland finals in 2012, with the Tribesmen losing a replay to Kilkenny, while Mayo went down to Donegal in the football.

The only other occasion two Connacht counties made it to the finals was in 1980 when Galway won the hurling title and Roscommon lost out to Kerry in the football decider.

Galway have reached the two finals in the same year on two occasions, winning the football title in 1925 and 2001 but losing the hurling deciders on both occasions.

Hynes said that he has never seen bigger demand for tickets in Galway, with the minors also involved on the day when they take on Cork.

"The demand for tickets is unprecedented. I know we got to the All-Ireland final in 2015 but the demand this time is unprecedented.

"The fact that the minors are there has increased the demand but overall there is a level of confidence in Galway that maybe this could be our year.

"It is also a very novel final, two teams meeting in the final for the first time ever and it's a final also that all neutrals want to go to."

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