Inter-county players across the country have had to bide their time to return to training with their panels. For Kilkenny's Grace Walsh, that wait has been a little longer.
The 2018 All Star has developed into one of the leading lights in the sport, though the pain of coming up short in last year’s decider – their fourth such defeat in six years – will help fuel yet another challenge to win the O'Duffy Cup.
For the Dublin-based nurse, after a hugely enjoyable club season with Tullaroan, a return to Kilkenny was curtailed due to Covid-19.
A clinical nurse in St Vincent’s Hospital, Walsh was deemed a close contact and was forced to self-isolate for a fortnight, only returning to inter-county training last week ahead of this weekend’s championship opener against Waterford.
Initial upset gave way to comfort that her cautious approach had not endangered anyone regardless of the test result.
"When I got the call to say I was a close contact, when I hung up the call, I started to cry," she tells RTÉ Sport at the 2020 Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Camogie Championship launch. "It was a cry of relief more than anything. I get emotional even thinking about it.
"The only person I was in contact with was my housemate. When I got off the phone I was so relieved that I hadn’t been in contact with anybody else. That’s what is so important.
"I knew I wouldn’t have any regrets if I tested positive for Covid. I wasn’t really worried about myself. I had no symptoms. I didn’t know my results at the time.
"I thought about, 'what if I had been in contact with my parents? What if I met up a group of friends?’
"You don’t want to have that regret. I promise you there would be no worse feeling than putting someone else at risk."
Back to work as a nurse after 2 weeks of isolation post WORK related Covid19 close contact and now finding out Im not entitled to sick pay from my employer for the time I HAD to take off. #Covid19 @LeoVaradkar @MichealMartinTD @HSELive @paulreiddublin @DonnellyStephen
— Grace Walsh (@GraceWalsh1) October 8, 2020
Walsh posted on social media her frustration at the situation that sees nurses fail to receive sick-pay for forced time off due to work-related Covid contact tracing.
While the defender wouldn’t expand on that sentiment further, she did offer an insight to her experience of life on the frontline.
"Just before Covid hit, it was very, very busy. I work in a surgical ward and we have a high dependency unit on our ward. It’s always extremely busy.
"But in lockdown, when the cases were at its highest, I really enjoyed work. I can only speak from my own personal experience, but we were very much supported in St Vincents Hospital. I was working on a Covid positive ward for a few weeks.
"We were looking after the less-sick patients. I saw the good side of it where people went from being sick to being Covid positive and going home."
The flip-side to the pandemic, in a sporting context at least, has been the renewed focus on the club scene.
Not having to serve two masters was a welcome relief for all inter-county players who could concentrate on local, rather than national matters.
Walsh is emphatic when asked on how it felt to focus only on Tullaroan during the summer months.
"The club was outrageous," she says. "I have never enjoyed my club experience as much. We didn’t get where we wanted to be – we were knocked out in the quarter-finals – but it was so enjoyable to play with the girls you have grown up with."
We really bonded as a team, as a club and as a community
Having her cousin and inter-county team-mate Miriam Walsh only added to the satisfaction.
"For Miriam and I, for the past four years, we have played an All-Ireland final on a Sunday and then you go out and are expected to play with the club the following Sunday having probably not trained with them for seven or eight months. How can you expect a team to bond or be used to playing together when we don’t train together?
"We really bonded as a team, as a club and as a community."
It has also highlighted the difference in psyche she has had at times in relation to playing for club and county.
A key figure in the Cats rearguard that reached another All-Ireland decider last year, Walsh felt her own performances were a little below par. The pandemic, and playing with the club, has perhaps shed a little more light on the possible reason why.
"I felt confidence was a huge thing. With the club, you are just so free. You don’t put pressure on yourself and I don’t know why.
"Sometimes when you go into an inter-county set-up, you can lose that confidence. It’s amazing to think that a team that can get to an All-Ireland final every year can lack confidence individually. It’s something I would look to improve on and would have got help in that regard."
It will be a unique nine-week championship in many ways.
Five key games during the group stages will be streamed online, meaning along with RTÉ's coverage from the quarter-final stage, every round will be available for supporters to view.
Whatever happens on the pitch for Kilkenny this year, whether Walsh gets her hands on the O’Duffy Cup or not in December, she says Covid-19 has given a little perspective about why she plays the game.
"We have had a lot of time to reflect on previous years [final defeats], and what is going to happen now, and in the future. What I have realised is why I actually play camogie.
"It’s that I love playing the game, win or lose. I really learned it this year getting to play with my club.
"We have to learn not to put the pressure on ourselves when we get to the final hurdle."
