WOMEN'S ALL-IRELAND FINALSAT THE start of the year Angela Walsh made the difficult decision to focus on her football and put her camogie aside. For a long time she'd successfully combined the two, winning All-Irelands with Cork in both games, yet felt the time had come to drop one for the betterment of the other.
Winning a Cork club title with Inch Rovers helped make up her mind as to which game to go with, as it earned her the captaincy of the county team as they set out for a fourth consecutive All-Ireland title.
Then earlier this month, Cork won the All-Ireland camogie title - with Walsh watching from the stands. Yet any regrets about not being out on the pitch were short-lived. Walsh still has the chance for her own title when Cork face Monaghan in Sunday's TG4 All-Ireland final at Croke Park, and if anything the incentive to win is even greater now.
"I was delighted for them, absolutely delighted," she says of her former camogie team-mates. "They gave a magnificent performance. We came up with the girls from the Cork football team. It was strange because it was my first time watching a final instead of being out playing. There were a couple of minutes where I was thinking I'd love to be out there but overall I was just delighted. I've made the decision and I'm sticking to my guns.
"And it has been much easier now than last year. It's given me a lot more opportunity to go to play with my club. Also at the end of last year the main reason I chose to go with just one was because I was getting a lot of niggly injuries and I felt I wasn't giving it 100 per cent to both. So I went with the football and obviously I'm delighted about where we're at on Sunday.
"I knew I was going to captain Cork. As well as that I suppose I've got more personal rewards from football. It was a very, very tough decision obviously. I really loved camogie and was sorry to give it up but am enjoying it a lot more at club level. I'd never say I'll never go back, maybe in the future but not now."
There is no doubting that Cork have now established themselves as the leading women's football team in the country, and Sunday's quest for the four-in-a-row is a clear indication of that. They have lost just two games in nearly four years, and already regained the National League title back in May.
"At the start of the season you set yourself goals and this season is the same in that regard as 2005," says Walsh, a teacher of PE and maths at St Augustine's in Dungarvan.
"Granted when you win the All-Ireland you want to go on and do it again the next year but it's never a matter of a number or a two in a row or three or whatever. We're focusing more on the 2008 season than the four in a row, if it happens it happens.
"The first time we won the Munster down in Páirc Uí Rinn in 2004 was just fantastic. That day we realised that we have great potential here. Personally, under the guidance of Eamonn Ryan, I think we've reached the heights because of him. As well, the 2005 final beating Mayo. We were still a point down with 30 seconds to go and I think that was really the making of us. We came back and it instilled great self belief in us and gave us the confidence and belief to go on."
Despite significantly raising the profile of women's football in Cork, Walsh feels the team doesn't always get the same level of respect or appreciation as their male counterparts: "I just feel that maybe the women sports are a little bit underappreciated. It's very difficult for us ourselves.
"So you could look at that two ways. On the one hand you could say it's completely unfair but I just think that the majority of us are in it for the love of the game. It is hard work, we do train, we do just as much as the men, we put it in and make all the sacrifices."
