Ursula Jacob believes that the camogie community can take a sigh of relief as the skorts situation appears to finally be resolved.
The sport has been in the headlines for the past few weeks as player-power managed to turn the conversation in favour of freedom of choice for all involved.
Postponements and protests throughout during that time, but now the actual action should be able to do the talking heading into the summer's All-Ireland championship.
And the former Wexford star feels that the inter-county players will feel that a weight has been taken off their shoulders ahead of this weekend's games with Jacob’s own county among the first with the opportunity to take to the competitive action in their preferred garments.
"A huge amount of relief, it’s a landmark day for camogie," said Jacob, speaking on this week’s The Championship.
"To be fair, it was the players who were the driving force behind it all over the last couple of weeks.
"They built up a huge amount of support and momentum from the general public, and a huge positive from [the vote] was that it was such a resounding result, 98% in favour.
"We have 94,000 playing members in the camogie association, that’s a huge number of players, and it’s brilliant to see that the choice option is now there."
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The four-time All-Ireland winner admitted that she was initially frustrated that the vote was taking so long, however, she does feel that the delay did actually allow thing to be done properly to gain an accurate account of how the players felt regarding the topic.
"You could see that the delegates went back to the clubs and listened to the players' voices," she said.
"That was the message the players were trying to get across over the last couple of weeks, 'listen to what the players are saying’. And thankfully the choice result got through.
"I was wondering why there was a two-week delay," added Jacob. "I think they used the two weeks wisely, and for the most part they did, they carried out the surveys, and it was a true reflection and an accurate reflection as to where the players are at."
Looking ahead to the championship action, Jacob believes the standard is continually improving and is urging people to go out and see the quality that is on show, without the background noise of the skorts controversy.
"There are no distractions now, camogie has made the headlines for all the wrong reasons, but now it’s making the headlines for the right reasons.
"There are some top-class players out there, and it’s now about exposing them to a wider audience. The game is in a really good place and the standard is getting higher every year."
Watch a hurling championship double-header, Dublin v Galway (2pm) and Cork v Waterford (4pm), on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1. Highlights on The Sunday Game from 9.30pm.
