Given the skorts debacle that dominated this year's camogie championship, there is little surprise that the topic is introduced early in RTÉ's new documentary Camogie: Inside The Championship.
The two-part series, the latest sporting documentary from Ross Whitaker, begins on Thursday (10.15pm on RTÉ 1 and RTÉ Player) and brings viewers behind the scenes of the 2025 All-Ireland championship.
Galway, Waterford, Tipperary, Dublin and Kilkenny are the sides that allow behind-the-scenes access throughout their respective campaigns, and straight away we are brought into the skort controversy.
The cameras were present for the protest by Dublin and Kilkenny players in the opening round of the Leinster championship. Both camps toyed with the idea of abandoning the match, yet the repercussions were immediate.
"We didn’t want to take the risk of losing the opportunity to play a match we have been working for months, maybe years, to play," Dublin’s Aisling Maher, who would play a prominent role in her position as co-chair of the Gaelic Players Association, said.
"By the time I finished the game, my phone was already blown up with messages and requests to talk."
A Special Congress vote by the Camogie Association resulted in a landslide victory, granting players the choice to wear either shorts or skorts, but the depth of feeling is clear to see from the players right across the country.
Maher, a key figure within Bill McCormack’s Dublin set-up, is doing her level best to win her fitness battle for championship, but the off-field matters dominate the national headlines.
At one point, the St Vincent’s player becomes emotional reading through some of the messages that have been sent to her on the back of her public work speaking on the right to wear shorts.
"I know how much the game has given me," she says. "I want other girls to have that experience."
Back to matters on the pitch and the opening episode 'Race to the Knockouts’ takes a close look at Tipperary’s ambitions to build on repeated All-Ireland semi-final failure, having lost four on the spin and six of the last seven.
The physical preparations from the various camps early in the season are on display, but for the Premier County, it's more about mindset than physical fitness.
"It is very disheartening and disappointing, just being so close to that final step and not being able to break through," Clodagh McIntyre, who is battling injury for the start of the championship campaign, says.
"There are things we are definitely working on. I don’t think it was skill or ability to play that let us down. I think everyone on the panel believes we can do it. It’s just actually doing it."
Tipp’s confidence takes a huge hit in the opening round as All-Ireland champions Cork steamroll their hosts at the Ragg, a goal blitz ending the contest early.
There was no sugar-coating from manager Denis Kelly when addressing his players afterwards.
"This is a fair kick in the hole," he says. "We definitely have to do a bit of soul-searching now. Wexford were beaten as well today. It means fu** all. We have to go to Wexford next weekend and we have never won handy down there. It’s knockout from here on in."
The term soul-searching crops up a number of times. It features for Kilkenny too after their first-ever championship defeat at the hands of neighbours Waterford.
Wing-back Orla Hickey was part of a Déise defence that limited the Cats to just three points from play and outlines her reason for returning home from Canada.
While admitting that the lure of home was always likely to bring her back, it was her father Ger’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis that sped up the process.
Speaking alongside his daughter, he insists he is the "proudest man in the world" watching his daughter give it her all for Waterford, despite the gloomy outlook from the medical professionals.
"The medical team told me I’d be gone in September. I’m going nowhere. I’m only going to Croke Park," he says.
The first episode follows the trail of Maher and Kilkenny’s Katie Power, with the experienced pair doing their level best to return to the field of play, while Tipperary’s Grace O’Brien admits that her role as a teacher aids the main passion in her life.
"It’s the biggest part of my life, it shapes everything else."
Camogie: Inside The Championship is produced for RTÉ by Ross Whitaker and Kite Entertainment. The two-part series begins on Thursday at 10.15pm on RTÉ 1 and RTÉ Player.
