It will be a strange feeling for Athlone Town captain Laurie Ryan when she leads the team out to face Shelbourne at Tallaght Stadium in Sunday's EVOKE.ie FAI Women's Cup final.
There'll be pride and determination of course, but also a nagging question in the back of her mind: how are Banner doing?
Ryan isn't just a driving force behind Athlone's run to their first ever cup final; she's also a quality Gaelic footballer, starring for Clare in the championship and more recently driving her club Banner in the county and provincial competitions.
Banner beat Fethard a week ago to set up a Munster SFC decider against Ballymacarbry. One problem: it throws in at the same time as the soccer cup final.
"We won the county championship and made the Munster final, which is on at 3pm on Sunday as well," said Ryan.
"It was a bit of a disaster. We tried to get it pushed back a week because there is a gap week there, but the other team, Ballymacarbry from Waterford, didn't approve. There is a big chance of winning it with Mourneabbey of Cork knocked out because they would have been our stumbling block in the last few years.
"We are under no illusion that they will come and go for us."
"The minute we won the Munster semi-final, we knew and sent an email to the Munster Council straight away to get it changed but I have been really lucky the girls have been understanding of me being captain of Athlone.
"My loyalties are there at the moment, but it's disappointing to miss the big days with the club as well."
A winner's medal in Tallaght would be a great way to eradicate any mixed feelings and an incredible end to what's been a breakthrough year for Athlone.
They pushed Shels right to the wire in the league, eventually finishing second. Nobody would have predicted that for Tommy Hewitt's charges at the start of the campaign, who've been a breath of fresh air.
"The biggest challenge for us is the occasion," Ryan added.
"We have a very young squad so we have to be able to go out and perform and not be overawed by the occasion.
"Shelbourne have brilliant players in the likes of Abbie Larkin, Jessie Stapleton and Noelle Murray. Their threat is evident to everyone and they proved that again at the weekend when they beat Wexford.
"We are under no illusion that they will come and go for us."
Ryan knows what it's like to play on the big stage having featured for Clare in an All-Ireland intermediate final at Croke Park in 2016 [they were beaten by Kildare].
She also lectures at Athlone IT, with some of her team-mates under her tutelage, and naturally feels a responsibility towards the younger footballers in the squad.
"I lecture a good few of them: Kelsey Munroe, Jess Hennessy, Roisin Molloy, Kelly Brennan, Kayleigh Shine… the list goes on. I'm teaching science within a sports department and I couldn't get any luckier. It’s a perfect blend.
"It's nice. I love building relationships up with all my students anyway so it’s no different. It just means I get to see them a lot more. I meet them for lunch a lot. For Madison Gibson, who has just come into the college, she gets to meet us more too. It just adds to the bond we created.
"I'm lucky that I have played in an All-Ireland final in Croke Park, so those big days do stand to you.
"When we did, it was probably the fact we had not played there before which let us down on the day. It will definitely stand to us."
No matter what happens on Sunday, this has been a brilliant campaign for Athlone. In only their third year in the Women's National League they've shown they can compete with anyone. The future is bright.
"One thing I have said is I've loved the way the league has distracted us from the cup," said Ryan.
"We've been playing every week in really important games which meant we couldn't look too far ahead or get sidetracked and that stood to us.
"It doesn't give us long to think about the final as well because you don't want to be dwelling on it for four weeks, thinking, 'how can we win this?'.
"No, we just have to go and perform and do what we've been doing."
Watch the Women's FAI Cup final, Athlone Town v Shelbourne, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Sunday from 2.30pm with live radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 and follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app
