It's just 11 years since the belated formation of the Women's National League and Kylie Murphy - player of the season last year - was there at the start.
The Wexford attacker remembers an initial rush of energy that accompanied the formation of the league, the first national women's league to gain any traction since the somewhat archaic sounding Ladies League of Ireland of the 1980s.
In Murphy's view, the promotion of the league slackened badly for a few years before its recent revival as part of the rising tide across women's sport generally at the beginning of the new decade.
She says its essential that the momentum is maintained.
"Not to be complaining but at the start, there were so many aspirations and hopes and dreams that the women's national league was going to be this, that and the other. It started well. And then it took a dip," Murphy told RTÉ Sport at the LOI/WNL launch.
"And it kind of stopped and there was no progression. But in the last two years, it has come on in leaps and bounds. And that's why I'm focused on why we can't stop [pushing the league].
"Because 10 years ago, we were going to do this, that and the other and it just never happened. Right now, the FAI and the WNL, we've taken the first steps. So, let's keep moving forward."
Murphy, now 33, gazes across at the burgeoning WSL across the water, now screened live on Sky Sports, and wonders whether its possible to conjure a similar environment here.
"Girls are getting really good coaching, good management, playing on the best pitches in Ireland. A lot of our internationals are going pro. And being in a full-time environment, that's only going to do wonders for our national team. My only hope is can we do that in Ireland?
"Can we push the league here? I sit down and watch the WSL over in England but maybe can we have people watching it here? I know what I'm talking about is five or ten years away. But is that where we need to be looking towards.
"You see TG4 showing four games last year. Maybe can we show every game next year? You see RTÉ showing the Cup final, maybe can we show the run-up to the final?
"It's really important. You see the 'If You Can See It, You Can Be It' campaign, it was huge. When I was a young kid, I would have loved to see the women's game. I never had any role models like that because you were looking at the Premiership.
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"It is building. It doesn't have to go 100 miles an hour but we do have to keep moving forward. And every year, that it keeps getting better. These things take time, I know."
Though the ultimate prize eluded Wexford, 2021 was a glorious year for Murphy.
Switched from her traditional role in central midfield to centre-forward - to compensate for the loss of Irish international Rianna Jarrett to London City Lionesses - Murphy struck 15 league goals, winding up with the WNL Player of the Year award.
Better again, an FAI Cup, the fourth of her long career, arrived with a 3-1 win over Shels in the final in Tallaght. Earlier this year, she picked up a new gong, the inaugural Soccer Writers' of Ireland Women's Personality of the Year award.
But the league title, which Wexford won four times in five seasons between 2014-15 and 2018 (switch to calendar year structure occurred in 2016), remains the priority.
"It was incredible winning the Cup. The personal awards are obviously very nice but those awards don't come around without your teammates, or your club or your management.
"I'm very much aware I'm receiving it (Player of the Year) because of them. It was an incredible year. But we can't look back, we have to look forward. We feel like we haven't lifted the National League trophy for a while. That's the aim.
"The league is first and foremost. It gives you Champions League football so that's where you want to be.
"Last year, in our first two games, we dropped five points and it just wasn't good enough. And we were literally chasing our tails for the whole season. Chasing Pea's, chasing Shels, whatever it may be. And the League is very unforgiving, you can't drop too many points. It's next near impossible to catch up.
"It's a few years ago since we won it, I can't even remember (it was 2018). It feels like a lifetime when you're watching other teams picking them up."
Late last year, Vera Pauw's assistant Tom Elmes, a former Wexford manager, suggested that Murphy could be drafted into the Ireland squad.
While a reasonable sprinkling of WNL players have often been part of Irish squads, Murphy, despite her decorated career at home, is not one of them. The Wexford midfielder is relatively sanguine about the situation, acknowledging Pauw's preference for full-timers.
"Vera wants her squad as full-time professionals. That's completely understandable. If you've a girl working a 40-hour week and playing Women's National League and then another girl whose job is to play football, you're going to reap the rewards from picking a full-time professional. It's completely understandable.
"My thing is can we get to the stage where they don't have to leave the women's national league. Can we get to the stage where she's a full-time professional, an international and we have her here? And not just have the national league as a stepping stone across the water."
