For most Kilkenny players this weekend, the last taste of an All-Ireland final was that bitter defeat a little over 12 months ago. For team captain Lucinda Gahan however, the stretch goes back 12 years.
Brian Dowling's side will be looking to exact revenge for defeat in this fixture in 2019, and indeed despite five successive finals, they have only come out the right side of the result in 2016.
Gahan however carries little of that losing baggage, indeed her early inter-county career was laden with success.
In 2007 she picked up her third successive All-Ireland minor title – one as captain – and a year later was part of an intermediate side that also won ultimate honours.
Gahan togged out in UCC colours during her third-level days, but upon completion of her psychiatric nursing degree in 2010, employment options in recession-hit Ireland were limited.
She set off for Cardiff. The plan was never to stay for long, but six years passed before she knew it. There was no camogie outlet, but she did tog out for the football team.
"I wanted to get involved in something else when camogie wasn’t there," she tells RTÉ Sport.
While she enjoyed the social aspect and thrived on the pitch – she duly collected a Player of the Year award – she was missing the real competitive vibe. Running was another outlet, completing trail marathons in Wales as well as the London marathon.
A short stint in Australia was put down before she made the decision to come home in 2018.
"I wasn’t sure if I’d come back to Ireland, I never imagined I would be back playing camogie again."
It was her brothers who encouraged her to join Dicksboro and there was a nervous energy before what was her first game in "six or seven years" against Thomastown.
"I was really nervous coming back playing for my first club game. Was I going to be able to play as well as before? It made me more determined.
"I just went out and did my best, and was relieved that I was still able to play okay. You feel like you have a lot to prove having been at this level years ago at underage."
A year later and she led the club to a county success. Now she leads a Kilkenny side bidding to topple the champions under lights next Saturday night in Croke Park.
After such an absence from the game, it’s scarcely believable journey.
"It’s hard to explain. I just can’t believe I’m here as captain of the Kilkenny senior camogie team. It’s what you dream of when you are a young girl. All you do is play camogie. At that age, when you see the senior players, that’s your goal.
"When I was 20, 21, when I went away, I never would have imagined that I would be back at this level."
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A broken hand back in injury was an early set-back in the year, but in such a highly competitive squad, Gahan has been unable to force her way into the reckoning and was an unused substitute against Cork in the semi-final.
Despite a 12-year gap to her last All-Ireland final, Gahan has plenty of time on her side to prolong an inter-county career regardless of the result against the Tribeswomen, and is an example that too much stock can be put into a player’s age.
"I’m 31 now. You question when you come back, 'am I too old? You never are. There is still a lot to achieve at that age and it’s never too late.
"Settling back in, getting to know people, the social inclusion, it’s good for your physical health, good for your mental health. There are so many benefits."
There is the small matter of dethroning the champions, and with final defeat to Galway in 2015 as well as 2019, Gahan knows it is a tall order facing the black and amber.
"Galway are a very good team, and we can’t just treat it like any other game.
"We have to believe in ourselves. It’s hard to know where we went wrong last year. We are doing our best to work on the mistakes that were made last year."
Watch Galway v Kilkenny live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player this Saturday from 6.10pm.
