Kilkenny defender Michelle Teehan is hopeful that the continuing integration process between the Camogie Association, GAA and LGFA will help flatten out the off-field speed bumps that continue to slow down the progress of camogie.
In recent months, several non-playing matters have been earning headlines.
High up the list was the cancellation of the Camoige All-Star tour to Canada after some players conveyed that they would not attend as it was scheduled to begin a week after the Leinster and Munster provincial finals and end eight days prior to the start of the senior championship.
The issue of skorts have also been brought front and centre by London club Thomas McCurtains ahead of the start of Camogie congress tomorrow, while in recent days Laois have said they were "ambushed" after being placed in the intermediate grade this season despite being losing a relegation play-off to Kildare last year.
The integration steering group, chaired by President of Ireland Mary McAleese, is currently seeking submissions from every county and Teehan can only see it as a great development.
"It is a really, really positive thing for hopefully all codes but I think for the Camogie Association more so," she said.
"I think they can really use the guidance and learn. I don't think the decisions are done on purpose, they have their reasons for certain decisions.
"I know they were approached by a good group in Canada to ask could they hold the All-Stars and it was a great idea and a great deal, but unfortunately from a players’ point of view, it just wasn’t ideal in terms of the timing.
"You would like to see something like that resolved because it is player welfare at the end of the day and we put as much time into it as people in the other associations.
"I know there’s definitely a lot of work going on in the background and it seems to be moving, which is really good."
On the pitch, Teehan believes that the lessons of 2021 will be key to her side's hopes of retaining the O’Duffy Cup in the coming months.
Three years ago, the Cats reigned supreme with an All-Ireland final win over Galway but lost their grip on the title following a semi-final loss to Cork the following season.
The target is again on their backs this year after collecting a 15th All-Ireland title last August.
"I don’t think that we have even thought about that [retaining the title]," the James Stephens player said.
"I think we made that mistake after 2020, in 2021, when we won. That All-Ireland took place in December so we were nearly straight back into the following league.
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"It’s never a conscious thing... in 2021 it kind of seemed that we were a bit more complacent because we had that All-Ireland in our back pocket.
"For us I think we’re just looking at the league campaign we just had and we’re not as happy as we’d like to be with it. Now we’re just starting from scratch again, ready to build."
Kilkenny’s Leinster campaign begins on 6 May where they will face the winners of Offaly and Westmeath.
They enter the provincial competition, and the subsequent All-Ireland group campaign that begins on 10/11 June, on the back of a middling league campaign that saw Brian Dowling’s team pick up just two wins from five games.
For Teehan, it was still an invaluable experience heading into the summer months while she also admitted that their "end product" and "hits and tackles" are two areas with serious room for improvement.
"It's definitely been a league that we’ve learned a lot from," she said.
"We’re happy now to have this training block to just work on everything that we’ve learned.
"We were delighted to get our last result as a win, it was a very tough game against Tipp and I think our character got us over the line.
"We’re happy with that and we’re ready to be stronger when Leinster comes around."
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