The 2025 All-Ireland camogie final provides us with a comfortably familiar pairing after a season of upheaval.
Whatever the outcome this weekend, we know that both posterity and the casual observer will likely remember the 2025 camogie season for 'skortgate'. The saga is sure to be allocated a couple of minutes on Reeling in the Years whenever they get around to making it.
It was a controversy that could easily have been averted. Throughout 2024, it was clear from GPA surveys that the consensus among the players was for a change in the regulations to allow shorts to be an option. Nonetheless, at last year's Congress, Camogie Association delegates rejected two motions that would have allowed for choice.
That teed up this summer's protest, which wound up generating international headlines and led to female parliamentarians donning shorts on the plinth in Leinster House. The Dublin-Kilkenny joint-protest ahead of their Leinster championship encounter kicked the controversy into a higher plane, sparking a crisis which saw the Cork-Waterford Munster decider being deferred after the All-Ireland champions released a statement indicating they would refuse to play in skorts.
Brian Molloy, the association's first-ever male president, called for a hastily arranged Special Congress where the matter could be resolved. Despite expressions of pessimism from players and ex-players, it was clear which way things were headed. A whopping 98% of the 133 delegates voted to allow change - leaving only three or so delegates who were willing to torpedo the entire season in order to insist on the maintenance of tradition.
This week, Molloy invoked those two crazy weeks in May as a challenge to supporters to come out and support the games in person.
"This time the message should be to all of their (camogie players') followers, and all of their constituents because there were a lot of politicians, senators, TDs, Ministers involved, they need to communicate the importance of actually physically supporting the players, not just verbally supporting the players, and that means turning up to Croke Park," Molloy told the Irish Examiner this week.
"Demonstrate physical, tangible support for the women that in May they called on the Association to support."
Camogie finals have tended to lag well behind women's football finals in attendances. Football deciders have regularly attracted crowds in the 40-50,000 range, with a couple of finals delivering crowds in excess of 50,000. By contrast, All-Ireland camogie final day has only witnessed one crowd north of 30,000, for the relatively novel Cork-Waterford final in 2023.
At least part of this is attributed to the strength of Dublin - and to a lesser extent, Meath - in women's football. Notably, the 2024 football decider between Kerry and Galway saw crowds plummet to just over 30,000, with the Dublin-Meath final last week generating a crowd of 48,000.
At the end of it all, the final is a repeat of last year's decider. Indeed, no final pairing has been as common as this one in the past three and a half decades.
This will be the ninth Cork-Galway All-Ireland final since 1993, which was the latter's first appearance in a final since the early 1960s.
Cork, who have none of the scar tissue in finals that now hangs over their male counterparts, are aiming for a three-in-a-row and seeking a 31st title which would take them five clear in the roll of honour.
It was the strength of their bench that proved decisive in last year's showdown, with subs Sorcha McCartan - from Down - and Clodagh Finn together landing the last three points of the game after Galway had drawn level following a second-half surge. There was a bitter dispute over the ultimately decisive goal, Katrina Mackey failing to make contact on the ball with her hurl as she hustled it over the goal-line.
Ger Manley's side made exceptionally light work of Group 1, amassing a score difference of +90, with only Clare avoiding a double-digit defeat (0-21 to 1-09).
They were troubled by Waterford in the second of the Nowlan Park semi-finals, with Beth Carton hitting 1-03 as the underdogs led 1-07 to 0-09 at the break. However, the wind was always a factor and Cork's superiority told in the second half, even if the 10-point margin in the finish was a little flattering to the champions.
Substitute Orlaith Mullins, who replaced McCartan, rustled up 1-02 in the dying embers to put a further gloss on the scoreline.
Saoirse McCarthy and Mackey carried much of the scoring load in the semi, registering 0-07 and 0-04 respectively.
Cork are especially strong in the middle third where the highly experienced and decorated duo of Ashling Thompson and Hannah Looney exert a major influence.
Cork camogie's hex around the 'threepeat' exceeds even that which affected the Kilkenny hurlers for years - this being an exceptionally first world problem admittedly.
They've done the back-to-back seven times since the beginning of the 1990s - indeed they rarely win All-Ireland titles in singles. But they haven't mustered three on the bounce since their four in a row team of the early 1970s (1970-73).
"Everyone you talk to is talking about it," said Amy O'Connor this week, when asked about the three-in-a-row bid.
"For ourselves, you have to acknowledge it. It's an unbelievable position to be in but it's not something we're going to focus on too much.
"It's another final. Every final you get to you want to win so we're not trying to go out and specifically focus on the three in a row, we're focusing on the final and trying to win that."
For Galway, it's been a season of renewal which has seen longstanding manager Cathal Murray usher in a new crop of players while overseeing an uptick in performance.
The westerners, who last won the title in 2021, beating Cork in the final, rather crept into last summer's decider, squeezing by Waterford and Tipperary in the knockout stage.
By contrast, they cut a greater dash this year, registering impressive wins over Waterford, Kilkenny and Dublin in the group phase and then accounting for Tipp by seven points in the semi.
This is all the more impressive given the turnover in personnel. Three-time All-Ireland winner Niamh Kilkenny, player of the year in the 2019 victory, stepped away in the off-season, while experienced inside forward Niamh Hannify also left the fold. On top of that, Murray has lost both Aine Keane and Niamh McPeake to injury.
But there's been an influx of youth with the teenage trio of Caoimhe Kelly, Olwen Rabbitte and Ciara Hickey all nailing down places, Kelly hitting 0-02 from play in the semi-final.
Murray also presided over Galway's triumph in the inaugural All-Ireland Under-23 title, where they beat Cork 1-11 to 1-08.
The former Sarsfields player, who guided his club to the Galway SHC title in 2015 before taking over county camogie job in late 2018, has copper-fastened his managerial credentials and is seeking to garner a third O'Duffy Cup triumph in what has been a highly successful reign.
Intriguingly, both sides will have Down women in action, Portaferry's Niamh Mallon - goalscorer against Tipp - lining up against former inter-county teammate McCartan and seeking a first All-Ireland senior title in her second year with Galway.
Watch the All-Ireland Camogie Championship finals on Sunday from 12.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, including the senior final of Cork v Galway at 5.15pm. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
