On first hearing, it sounds like another cliched answer from a GAA player looking to keep the message as simple as possible heading into an All-Ireland final.
On Saturday evening (live on RTÉ2), Galway and Kilkenny meet in the camogie decider for the second successive year. Indeed since the 2013 clash of the two counties, at least one of them have made the final.
The Tribeswomen are looking to keep hold of the O'Duffy Cup Sarah Dervan lifted last year as she followed in the footsteps of Imelda Hobbins (1996) and Lorraine Ward (2013) as a Galway All-Ireland winning captain.
Back-to-back titles has never been achieved, so the experienced defender is asked if this campaign feels different in purely a sporting sense.
"We haven’t spoken about back-to-back at all this year, especially with the way the year has gone, with Covid and everything, all you could do was focus on each game as they came," she tells RTÉ Sport.
"You couldn’t really think about defending anything."
It is a sentiment we have heard repeated often over the course of this shortened and unusual championship, but in Dervan’s case, she has legitimate reasons for not giving All-Ireland pressure too much thought.
Due to get married in March, the plan was changed to December with Covid-19 restrictions in the hope of a different landscape. In the summer the plug was pulled for the second time and now she is hoping November 2021 proves to be third time lucky.
"A good few players have been affected by it this year, but thankfully I’ve had camogie to keep me sane and get me through it. I’ve never appreciated something in my life as much as I have camogie this year, because it’s really taken me through the lows of the year.
You just get so worn out planning, I just wanted a break from it all
"We postponed the new date back in August, just because of all the uncertainty. I just got so sick of watching the news, seeing the numbers and them only going the wrong way. The pressure of trying decide what to do.
"You just get so worn out planning, I just wanted a break from it all.
"Making the decision was probably one of the hardest things to do, but there was nothing but relief once it was made, it was great to have it off your shoulders. I just threw myself in to camogie and I’m delighted to be able to have it to keep me going."
A team leader with Ballybrit-based medical technology company, Medtronic, she was one of many who had to acclimitise before recently returning to the office. On the pitch, things have had a 'normal' feel to them also in terms of results.
The favourites had six points to spare over Tipperary last time out and while Saturday’s opponents won’t be short of motivation as they seek to avoid a fourth successive final defeat, Cathal Murray’s side are in confident form.
The feel-good factor and team camaraderie is in sharp contrast to the earlier part of the year, when players trained on their own unsure if there would even be a championship to look forward to.
The experienced Dervan, who was part of Galway panels that lost All-Ireland finals in 2010 and 2011, says it was a challenging time to remain focused.
"It was actually very lonely. The hardest part was pucking around on your own. You can do the sessions yourself, running around, working with equipment, you power through them, but pucking around on your own or off a wall just isn’t the same as going down to the pitch, meeting the girls, chatting with them, having a bit of craic.
"When you’re in a routine like that, when you get up every morning, go to work, come home, go training, that’s your life, that’s what you do. So for everything to be taken away, I struggled for the first few weeks to figure out what I was supposed to be doing.
"The first evening we were all like kids going back to school, we were so delighted, and appreciative that we got this chance because not everyone did. It was brilliant, not just for us as players but for the families as well, because it gave them something to look forward to, even though they couldn’t go to the games."
Her parents have now become experts at streaming after a bit of trial and error with the TV connection to the laptop in the early games, though nerves meant her mother missed the majority of Dervan’s player-of-the-match accolade against Tipp, only tuning in when the game was effectively over as a contest.
On Saturday night the showpiece in the camogie calendar is expected to draw a sizeable TV viewership. The cold conditions have been a feature in the past two weeks, but a game under lights is another factor to throw into the mix for the quest to claim the O’Duffy Cup.
"You have to prepare yourself this week for what you’re going to do, like a dress rehearsal, food-wise, mentality-wise, sleep-wise, things like that. See what works for me.
"If I had an ice bath and didn't feel right about it, I wouldn’t do it next week. You just try and prepare yourself the best possible way.
"We’re getting used to lights with training in the evening, even though we’ve never played under the Croke Park lights, but that shouldn’t be much of a difference. It’s probably more the mental side of things, having the long day before the game, but look, an All-Ireland final in Croke Park under lights, to be part of that is just amazing."
Three first-half goals paved the way for the 2019 success over Kilkenny, but with a fresh approach from new manager Brian Dowling, plus serious firepower with the likes of Denise Gaule, Ann Dalton and Miriam Walsh, Dervan and her colleagues in the full-back line will have their hands full.
Last year’s free-scoring encounter may not be replicated, but that won’t bother Dervan as long as she is the one walking up the Hogan Stand as the winning captain.
"Kilkenny are going to be absolutely on fire, they’ll be hopping for us," she says.
"They’re a brilliant team, this is their fifth final in a row, that’s massive for a team to be able to be consistently competing in the All Ireland final.
"They have some unbelievable players, absolutely, but you can’t be worrying about what they’re going to bring, you just worry about yourself. Get yourself in the best possible mind-frame when the ball is in.
"Last year’s final was a high-scoring game, this year I think it’s just going to be two teams going absolutely at it. Whatever the score is, once you’re on the right side of it, nobody minds. It’s two hurling teams going absolutely hammer and tongs, it’s going to be a great game."
Watch live coverage of the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship final from Croke Park this Saturday on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player or follow our live blog on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News app. Highlights on The Sunday Game (9.30pm RTÉ2).
