It's been a long, long time since Helena Rohan became a "kitten cub" as she puts it.
The SETU Waterford Wildcats captain started her basketball journey with the club all the way back when she was six years old and at 30, she will be leading her team out this Sunday against Pyrobel Killester in the MissQuote.ie Champions Trophy final with the goal of lifting senior silverware for the first time in her career.
And opportunity knocks for a Wildcats team waiting to bridge a gap dating back to the 2000-01 season when they clinched the league and cup double.
"It's 15 years since the club has been in a senior final and I think over 20 years since the club has won a final," says Rohan of one of the motivating factors for the team heading into Sunday afternoon's showpiece.
"There's been a lot of semi-final heartbreaks. We've been in the semi-final a few times, knocking on the door, so we've kind of been thereabouts the last few years and I think making a final was a really special moment for the girls.
"The club has so much history and it would be great to put our own mark with a bit of history as well, so I think that's what's kept us going all these years."
The other side is the sisterhood that has been built by a core of players who have been on the road together for what might feel like an eternity.
"I'm lucky enough to still play with some of my best friends that I've grown up with over the years," says Rohan.
"So that involvement as well there is a community aspect to Wildcats that keeps you in the club and you grow up with these people as well.
"I've been to some of these girls' weddings, I've held their children. It's just that community feel that we have, it kind of hooks you I guess."
And it was through recommendations from some of those team-mates that Rohan, who works in marketing in her native Waterford, got to take a fork in the road and combine basketball with Gaelic football when the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered indoor sports in Ireland for a time.
"Mainly basketball was my main focus and actually in recent years it was during Covid that I took up Gaelic football," she says.
"When we had no basketball for a season I moved to Tramore in Waterford and I started playing with the club there.
"I'm two years playing with the club now and in fairness to them they've posted about us (Wildcats) being in the final as well so it's great to see other sports supporting each other which is great."
Needless to say there is a long line of players that have thrived in both football and basketball, with Kieran Donaghy an obvious inspiration in terms of showing how skills can be transferrable from the field to the court and vice versa.
"There's definitely some transferrable skills and who comes to mind straight away is Kieran Donaghy," says Rohan.
"He was one of my favourite football players to watch and one of my favourite basketball players to watch and it's just, I think, the reading of the game, there's some skills that are transferrable and stuff.
"It's so important to be involved in the these kind of sports, especially for young girls."
The head-to-head with Killester this season saw their Dublin opponents come out on top earlier in the league campaign but the Wildcats turned the tables on their home court in January and defence will be their bedrock if they are to come out on top at the weekend.
"We pride ourselves on our defence and it probably won us that game," says Rohan of an aspect that also helped them restrict cup champions Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell to just 69 points in their final home game of the regular season last month.
"It's been a massive step of our game this year. We really are focusing on our defence and the phrase that they use, 'Offence might bring crowds but it's defence that wins games for you'. We pride ourselves on that and we've shown that this year that we are one of the best defensive teams out there."
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