Declan Quill remembers the master fixtures plan dropping earlier in the year and immediately putting a big red circle around July 31st, the date of the TG4 All-Ireland final.
To anyone outside his Kerry dressingroom, and probably to many inside it too, it would have seemed a bold move that bordered on bizarre.
Kerry, without an All-Ireland win in nearly 30 years, were a Division Two team after all, that had only held on to senior status in the championship thanks to a relegation semi-final win over Tipperary last August.
“I don’t know how much the girls believed in it themselves,” admitted joint manager Quill ahead of Sunday’s decider with Meath.
“I suppose that as the year was rolling along, winning Division Two was a massive thing for us first of all. It was very like Meath actually last year, what they did. It gave us great confidence winning in Croke Park in a tight game. But yeah, hand on heart, I will say that we put July 31st into the calendar at the start of the year.
“I don’t think a lot of people outside our group would have believed that we’d be here or anywhere within an ass’s roar of it.”
The template laid down by Meath, for how to win an All-Ireland from a low base, inevitably helped.
Quill reckons beating Armagh in the Division Two league final in April, courtesy of a Danielle O’Leary-inspired second-half onslaught, then alerted the players to their full potential.
“It was just like Kerry [men] on Sunday, the big line on The Sunday Game was, ‘We got over the line, we had to get over the line’,” said Quill. “It was like that for us on that league final day on April 10th. I think they just have great belief in themselves ever since.”
It helps that Kerry have an arsenal of firepower at their disposal, eight goals in their last two games – wins over Armagh and Mayo – underlining that fact. If it’s not Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh slotting scores, it’s Siofra O’Shea, or O’Leary.
Meath, meanwhile, are counterattacking masters. The irresistible force will meet the immovable object then on Sunday.
“We have to be way more tactically astute,” said Quill. “We definitely won’t be getting inside that Meath back line as easy as we have been in the last couple of games. Meath have massive experience, playing in big finals since intermediate. They beat us well in the Division 2 final, won their league again this year.
“They have their set-up and their way of playing so it’s up to us to try to break that down and get inside them. When we get inside, we need to finish our chances, because they don’t give up a whole pile of them.”
If Kerry can pull it off and claim a first title since 1993, Anna Galvin will be the one to lift the Brendan Martin Cup. Few deserve the honour more than the Dublin-based occupational therapist.
Quill is in awe of her commitment but understandably worried too, for the future. Galvin has talked of it costing here a ‘holy fortune’ to live in Dublin while committing to Kerry.
“Anna is only 26, we’re going, ‘Will she even play next year?’ You just don’t know,” said Quill.
“She’s trying to make rent in Dublin, she’s trying to feed herself, she’s trying to put fuel in the car to come to training and she’s not the only one. Is it sustainable? I wouldn’t think so.
“And that’s a shame because you’re going to lose an awful lot more top players out of the game because of that. I don’t know what the long-term solution is. In my opinion, the girls should be compensated every time they get into their car. There should be some kind of a deal there for two or three nights a week.”
