With the ever increasing number of senior football and hurling games each championship season - as well as the GAA's obsession with fixing every tie for Croke Park - fans are being asked to travel greater distances each summer to follow their county.

Supporters in many counties feel they are being victimised by the venues chosen for matches. For example, Tyrone and Armagh have played each other three times at headquarters this season, with the replayed Ulster football final attracting less than 32,000 - an attendance just made for Clones.

Or take the other All-Ireland senior football semi-final - between Kerry and Cork last weekend - which drew less than 40,000 to Dublin. There are two neutral venues in Munster that could have catered for a bigger attendance than that.

Hurling fans have had the same difficulties: if, say, Kilkenny v Limerick, Galway v Kilkenny, or Clare v Wexford are not more suited for Semple Stadium than Croke Park, than what is?

So who are the greatest fans? Who have been asked to travel the farthest to support their team this year? We decided to find out. Of course, as soon as we started we came up against some obvious problems - the main one being: A starting point (not for us, but for each supporter).

Where there wasn't a centrally located town in each county that had a large population, we picked the nearest thing.

The distances are calculated for a round trip - so for Clare's senior hurling championship season, the 1,915 km is based on the distance from Ennis to Thurles, Ennis to Dublin (three times) and Ennis to Portlaoise, plus the return journeys. As Ennis is the home base, the game at Cusack Park counts for nothing.

This brought us to the second problem - many fans won't be leaving for games from a town listed. And it means that Tipperary and Dublin fans aren't credited with any mileage as they played all their senior championship games in their home town.

In fact, when we mentioned our mileage plan to a Cork supporter - Aisling Martin-Sullivan - a few days ago, we were reminded that someone from Castletownbere travelling to Páirc Uí Chaoimh for a match would have clocked up 166 miles on arriving home. Still, we're hoping it'll give some idea as to the distances travelled - and feel free to add (or subtract) a few miles depending on your proximity to the town chosen.

Beating Armagh in their ninth championship game of the season yesterday took Tyrone to the top of the football list, with an incredible seven summer trips to Croke Park (the seventh one to come, of course) with supporters travelling 2,931 kilometres in 10 games.

Clare supporters who drove to all six senior hurling championship games this summer are surely responsible for putting a few more pence on the price of a barrel of oil. Though they would surely have loved to tip over the 2,000-kilometre mark this summer if it meant one more date at headquarters.

However, we have to go back to Cork for our winners. How many Cork supporters will be going to their 10th senior championship tie of the summer on September 25th? We're not sure, but, by our reckoning a round trip from Cork city to all 10 games would have meant travelling 3,469 kilometres. Pat-on-the-back time.

Quote of the Weekend - "To be honest I think this is the best ever victory for Tyrone, even sweeter than 2003" - and that's probably not getting carried away. I think the Ulster final gave us an extra bit of character." - Tyrone midfielder Seán Cavanagh.

Next Weekend

Friday & Saturday

Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Hurling Sevens

Women's All-Ireland

SFC Semi-finals

Cork v Mayo

Dublin v Galway

(Both at Portlaoise)

Sunday

All-Ireland MHC Final

Galway v Limerick

All-Ireland SHC Final

Galway v Cork

(Both at Croke Park)