Ireland captain Katie Mullan hopes her team's astonishing achievements at the Hockey World Cup lead to greater funding and support so the Green Army can "keep creating history".
Graham Shaw's team will return to a hero's welcome in Dublin this afternoon after they defied all expectations in their thrilling run to the final in London.
The Netherlands ended the dream with a 6-0 victory, but nobody can doubt the scale of Ireland's achievement. It can, says Mullan, prove the start of a special era.
"We have to make the sport gets the credit it deserves," she told RTÉ Sport's Damien O'Meara on Morning Ireland.
"We have to make sure that if we break into the top 10, every tournament we go to perform as a top-ten-in-the-world team and we keep creating history, leave our legacy and leave the shirt in a better place than we found it.
"I think there is definitely a funding issue that sets us apart from other nations. We don't have some of the resources available to us that other nations have.
"Hopefully off the back of what we've done that support will come."
Yesterday, CEO of Sport Ireland John Treacy said the Ireland women's hockey players did not have to pay a levy of €550 each to represent their country at the World Cup, despite reports that they had to because of a shortfall in funding.
Mullan confirmed that, but again stressed the deep desire within the Irish camp to kick on from the last fortnight's breakthrough campaign, as she paid tribute to the huge support the team enjoyed in England.
"It's amazing to have had the impact we did. Genuinely we just went out and applied ourselves in every game and enjoyed every second of the tournament.
"We've had a really enjoyable tournament so there's a bit of a mixed emotion with that coming to an end. We've been to a lot of tournaments where we haven't maybe reached our potential so the overall feeling is sheer enjoyment and excitement for what we've done.
"We kept ourselves focused on what was ahead but after the final game you really do take it all in. The support has been incredible.
"It felt like we were playing at a home World Cup yesterday. We couldn't have asked for any more from our supporters.
"Even people back home, the messages you;re getting, people all over the country in all counties watching the games in their local pubs... its amazing to think we've had that impact on hockey in Ireland."
