Cork dual star Libby Coppinger hopes fixture clashes in ladies football and Camogie can be avoided after the controversy caused this season.
Coppinger was a key part of the Cork side who won their first Camogie title since 2018, having lost finals in 2022 and 2021.
After a resounding win over Waterford, Coppinger admitted previous final defeats were on their mind heading into the showdown. Having ended a five-year drought with an extremely talented squad, Coppinger said an All-Ireland was a "few years coming".
"It's an incredible feeling. I was very lucky to have felt it before, but no matter how much you build it up in your head, it doesn't compare. It's a special few minutes after the final whistle. It's a few years coming with this group.
"We are really lucky in Cork that there is such an incredible history of winning All-Irelands and competing for All-Irelands. We lost in 2016 when I was first involved, and then won in 2017 and 2018, so you are thrown right into the mix of it, so you think this is the way this will always be.
"To have the last few years of being so close, and not being able to get over the line, we really felt the last few years we gave everything we could. To finally get over the line was massive."
It was a busy year for Coppinger, having been part of the ladies footballers who lost their All-Ireland semi-final to eventual winners Dublin.
For any dual player, it takes a huge amount of commitment to both codes, particularly at inter-county level. However, the issues that this presents were highlighted this season, as fixture clashes lead to Coppinger player for both the Camogie and football team in one day.
Back in June, the St Colum's club woman played the full game for the Cork Camogie side in victory over Down, before driving to Galway to come on as a second half substitute for the footballers against Galway.
Alongside Aoife Healy, Hannah Loney and Orlaith Cahalane, Coppinger is one of four dual players at inter-county level for Cork, and she expressed her disappointment of the fixture clashes, as she missed out on playing for the footballers two weeks later.
"Unfortunately we got to a stage where we were almost waiting for it to happen during the year. I went up, and I was involved with the footballers in Galway after the Camogie, but you are under fierce pressure to get on the road.
"In two weeks time to miss the football match again was hugely disappointing. Both organisations are trying to do what they think is right, but I think dual players, there's not the numbers that there used to be a few years ago, but there is still players there willing to do that, and management willing to do that.
"At club level, even in just a small country club in St Colum's where I'm from, the overlap is crazy. So the fact the organisations can't work together just feeds down. We even have clashes in our own county, which you just shouldn't be having.
"We just feel like we are preaching the same thing over and over again. We aren't looking for anything crazy, just 24 hours between games. Unfortunately this year, I felt it was very possible in the fact we had two free weekends, the two weekends we didn't have clashes."
As player welfare issues in Ladies Football and Camogie continued to create headlines, inter-county teams were left with no option but to play under protest, as the GPA called for the integration of the Camogie association and the LGFA.
After the protest came to an end before the semi-final stage of the Ladies Football Championship, it was agreed a framework to deliver a standard charter for female inter-county players in 2024.
For players like Coppinger, who have experienced the consequences of the associations not cooperating, she hopes future generations don't have to put up the same fight current players have.
"It was so great to see the players coming together in Camogie and football, because that's the thing, we are all looking to keep the enjoyment there and represent our counties at the highest level.
"We are trying to make it easier for people coming forward, in the future for the younger girls we hope they don't have to fight the same fights we are fighting.
"Coming from Cork, we are lucky in terms of standards, our county boards have been brilliant in terms of giving us things. But that's not the same everywhere, and it's not the same as the men get.
"It's great to see things being fought for, and called out for what they are. The unity between everyone is great to see, the lads were stepping up and voicing their opinion on things as well.
"Females in sport is definitely growing, but it shouldn't be as much of a fight as it is."
