Women's Football All-Ireland senior final:There are two obvious sources of incentive for Cork going into Sunday's All-Ireland women's football final: The chance to secure only the second three-in-a-row in women's football history; or the chance to make up for Cork's bitter All-Ireland defeats in three other grades recently - in minor hurling, in camogie, and, just last Sunday, in senior football.
No prizes for guessing the incentive for Juliet Murphy. Now in her third season as Cork captain, Sunday's game in Croke Park is all about winning that third All-Ireland in succession, a feat only achieved before by the great Kerry women's team of the 1980s, who won nine titles in succession.
Murphy isn't being distracted by talk of salvaging Cork pride or anything like that, especially since their opponents are the much-feared Mayo team, the two-time All-Ireland winners before Cork, and themselves chasing a fifth title in nine years.
"To win any All-Ireland is the ultimate achievement, regardless of how many have gone before," says Murphy. "So we set out at the start of the year to win the All-Ireland, not just retain it.
"We'd also been long enough watching All-Irelands on television, and for us, for a long time, our All-Ireland final meant going up for the seven-a-side. Cork had never been in an All-Ireland before this team, so to finally be on the stage I think has given us the hunger to stay there.
"But Mayo have still been the most successful team of the past decade, and for years the yardstick that everyone measured themselves against. That still holds true, in that they're still the team everyone wants to beat."
Not that winning on Sunday wouldn't be the ideal consolation for what Cork GAA has endured in recent weeks, particularly for those members of the team who also played in the All-Ireland camogie final: "It's has been a disappointing couple of weeks for Cork, no doubt about that," said Murphy. "I don't feel we're carrying any more pressure because of that . . . the girls we have from the camogie team were back training with us that Wednesday with as much motivation as if they had never lost. But again not wanting to have that feeling again should spur them on."
Mayo's presence will fire up Cork. Earlier this year in the National League semi-final they defeated Cork and thus ended their remarkable 32-game winning streak. Mayo went on to win the league outright, at the expense of Galway, though that result will have little bearing on Sunday.
"Well, it was very early on in the year," says Murphy. "We were just caught by a better team on the day. You have to credit Mayo in that respect, but we had brought on a few new players, and that always takes a while to get used to. Fitness levels weren't at their highest. But I don't think it was a reality check. There was still the championship to play for.
"There's a certain ethos for this team now, and a lot of that comes from our trainer, Eamonn Ryan, who really brought us from nowhere to this very high standard. I find myself even more dedicated, because when you taste success once you want that feeling back."
A third year as captain, the honour coming with being from county champions Donoughmore, has left Murphy with a key role, not that she's daunted in any way by the prospect of captaining three successive All-Ireland winning teams: "That's only something to look back on when you're older. I don't feel any pressure with it either, because we've a lot of leaders on the field. I'm comfortable with it.
"The first final (against Galway) was very daunting. And I suppose we had to graft out a victory last year (against Armagh). So admittedly we haven't given a great performance in our two finals to date. So Sunday is all about putting on big performance for ourselves, just reaching our potential."
All-Ireland champions Kerry will take on the Kerry county champions in the annual GOAL Challenge at Austin Stack Park, Tralee, this evening at 8pm. All proceeds will benefit GOAL's humanitarian programmes in the Darfur region of Sudan.
WEEKEND FIXTURES
FRIDAY:Tyrone SFC semi-final - Dromore v Cookstown, Healy Park, Omagh, 8.15.
SATURDAY:Kildare SFC semi-final - Sarsfields v Clane, St Conleth's Park, Newbridge, 5.30.
SUNDAY:All-Ireland Women's senior football final: Cork v Mayo, Croke Park, 4.0, All-Ireland Women's intermediate football final - Leitrim v Wexford, Croke Park, 2.0; All-Ireland Women's junior football final - Kilkenny v London, Croke Park, 12.0; Louth SFC final - Cooley Kickhams v St Patrick's, St Brigid's, Dundalk; Tyrone SFC semi-final - Donaghmore v Coalisland, O'Neill Park, Dungannon, P Kneel (Kilkerley Emmets) 4.0; Kildare SFC semi-final - Moorefield v St Laurences, St Conleth's Park, Newbridge, 3.30.
