By Paul O'Neill
Cork goalkeeper Aoife Murray believes it is harder to win an All-Ireland camogie medal now than it was when she started out with the county in 2002.
Murray has been again enjoying the feeling of landing the biggest prize in the game after helping Cork to overcome Kilkenny in Sunday's final.
It was her sixth such success with Cork and while she finds it difficult to single out any of them as being more special than others, she says it is tougher nowadays to earn a coveted medal.
Murray recalled: "When I began playing at inter-county level the game was dominated by a small few teams.
"In each of my first five seasons Tipperary and ourselves contested the All-Ireland final. Some other sides were not too far behind but every year either Cork or Tipp were ending up as champions.
"Over time, though, more and more counties started to come to the fore, challenge strongly and some actually won.
"The bar was raised quite a bit in terms of the general standard and it is certainly more difficult these days to get your hands on the All-Ireland. Before this year's Championship started you could have said five or six of the teams had a realistic chance of going on and winning it.
"Certainly having more sides being genuine contenders can only be good for the game going forward."
"The bar was raised quite a bit in terms of the general standard and it is certainly more difficult these days"
Murray and Cork had to pull out all of the stops in the Liberty Insurance All-Ireland decider to get the better of Kilkenny.
At the break Kilkenny were looking good for the victory as they were up by five points but Cork fought back to get on top and secure it instead. It was the first time that a team came from behind at half-time to win since Cork themselves pulled it off against Tipperary nine years ago.
And Murray admits that Cork knew they could not play any worse after the restart than they had in the opening half.
"We were hugely disappointed that we did not perform better than we did in the first 30 minutes and, heading in at the interval, we were probably fortunate not to find ourselves further adrift," she added.
"For the second half it was a case of putting what happened to one side and all of us having to take greater responsibility. It made a big difference as we upped our game and got the scores that mattered to take control.
"There was no panic after things had not gone well for us in the first half and probably the experience that most of the players in the squad had of having won All-Irelands before stood to us in that respect.
"I also think the fact we came through a replay against Wexford in the semi-finals helped us a lot in the end.
"That extra game was a stiff test and I think it boosted our belief more. Needing a second game was probably the best thing that could have happened to us – even though unfortunately it left a gap of just over two weeks to the final."
Meanwhile, Murray was particularly pleased with Cork's win for her brother Paudie Murray, who is the Rebel County manager.
He finally delivered the All-Ireland in his third term in the hot-seat after coming up short in the previous two. In his first championship campaign they lost out to Wexford in the final while last season Kilkenny ended their involvement in the last four.
But despite Cork's win, Aoife is not sure whether he will look to stay on for next year and try for back-to-back All-Irelands.
Aoife said: "I have not spoken with Paudie about next year because, since the final, we have just been making the most of having won.
"No doubt he would be a popular choice to be in charge again but I do not know what his position on the whole thing is. I suppose there will be plenty of time over the coming weeks for him and the county board to talk.
"I was delighted for him that we won the All-Ireland because of the disappointments of the previous two seasons in the championship.
"There were probably some followers of the game who were surprised that he was still with us this year after the defeat to Kilkenny last season but that result just made him more determined to succeed.
"We knew we were not too far off the top and came back this year and put in the work required to push hard for the All-Ireland. For sure no stone was left unturned as we sought to win back the O’Duffy Cup.
"At the start of the championship we felt we were properly equipped and prepared and we were ready to fight to the end."
