The weather was suitably gloomy at the UCD Bowl on Wednesday as Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw spoke with a of cluster of media, all huddled under the Main Stand to shelter from the spitting rain.
After a week of agonising over her final 23-player World Cup squad [plus three training players], Pauw spent Tuesday breaking the bad news to the ones who hadn't made it.
Today, as she did the rounds with waiting journalists, the emotion of the last few days seemed to catch up on her. At one point a visibly upset Pauw had to walk away to compose herself.
This was not a celebration; this was a wake.
"It’s not so much celebrating the squad, it’s more the pain we all feel of leaving players out," she said.
"I've never experienced this before. It's the bond that I have with the players. It's the hard work. It's also how they stood behind me in difficult times.
"It's how the FAI stood behind me, it's how Ireland has embraced me and it's everything together I think. Telling players that really stood up for you, that you're not taking them to the World Cup and break their dreams...
"Yesterday was the worst day of my career."
It's a horrible, necessary part of the gig but Pauw has stressed that the analysis around each player has been forensic. She's adamant that everyone got a fair chance to stake their claim.
Ultimately, injuries and match fitness were the costliest factors for the four most eye-catching omissions: Aoife Mannion, Megan Campbell, Leanne Kiernan and Jamie Finn, who at least has the consolation of being a travelling reserve.
Mannion has been in a knee brace for a month. It was taken off on Monday and though she has now entered a return-to-play phase, she would not have been ready for any of the three group games against Australia, Canada and Nigeria.
"Not close at all. No chance," Pauw said of the Manchester United centre-half.
"And that's devastating. She flew in on Monday to have this last talk with medical staff, myself, with her. It was a very clear talk, she was very strong."
Campbell is in a similar boat, the manager adding: "Megan will get fit again, but unfortunately there was no chance, to be honest. The risk would have been too big and she would not have been ready to fully go into the World Cup."
Pauw did not specify the nature of Campbell's injury, saying it was "a medical issue... nothing special, but privacy rules, I cannot talk".
Kiernan missed most of the season with an ankle injury. She played the first 45 minutes against Zambia last Thursday and offered flashes of her quality, but the Irish management's overall assessment was not just dependent on the naked eye.
Heart-rate monitors offered important information as they weighed up where each player was in terms of conditioning. Ultimately, Kiernan's hopes were crushed by the data.
"She did well, she did really, really well. But the data showed that the time between explosive actions were already getting longer during the first half [against Zambia]," said Pauw.
"That means that if other players are performing at a higher level, then technically you have to take that decision because it's World Cup level. It’s even twice as high a level as what we had against Zambia. It’s just that bit too early, unfortunately."
Finn will travel Down Under as one of the three reserve players. She's permitted to train with the group up until 19 July and will remain with the squad for the whole tournament. The 25-year-old was a key figure in the qualification campaign, starting in the play-off victory against Scotland. She's had a good season with Birmingham City too but a recent tactical change has left her in purgatory.
"That has been the hardest, hardest decision," the manager admitted. "She's been part of that squad all of the time but we’ve changed our playing system.
"We have Kyra Carusa as a target player and we brought Heather Payne to the right side, with pace on the wing. There’s also players who have jumped up levels.
"I’m so happy that she’s still part of our squad, that’s she’s travelling with us, that she will, together with Harriet Scott [another reserve], be a full member of the squad at every moment. I’ve had contact with FIFA yesterday three times to make sure that everything is arranged for them. We will really take care of them. It’s so important that Jamie and Harriet are involved."
The third reserve is Sophie Whitehouse, the fourth goalkeeper in the wider panel. Explaining her inclusion, Pauw said: "The rules and regulations are that you have to have three goalkeepers on the team sheet. So if there's a goalkeeper on matchday minus one that gets injured, we will not have three goalkeepers on the team sheet."
Mannion and Campbell's misfortune opened the door for Claire O'Riordan and Izzy Atkinson, who wasn't even included in Pauw's initial 31-player training squad but came in as extra cover for Campbell and then did enough in a strong cameo against Zambia to make the plane. It's a remarkable story for the Rush woman, a classic World Cup bolter.
They'll spend the next couple of days quietly celebrating the accomplishment before attentions turn to the farewell friendly against France on 6 July. Pauw will start her strongest possible team for that one, meaning we'll get another chance to see US-born midfielder Sinead Farrelly, who has just 60 minutes of international football under her belt having made her debut against America in April.
Pauw, perhaps mindful that such a new recruit might be accused of jumping on the bandwagon, asked rhetorically: "You've seen her quality? USA game, first cap into a squad completely new and being so dominant. Remember, she has done everything herself.
"After she got her passport, we got contact so her heart is she wants to be here and that was before we qualified that she started the process, far before we qualified.
"We've had many, many players dumped on my desk, in my email that try to jump on the bandwagon because there's a World Cup that we qualified for."
That bandwagon picks up steam now that we know who is officially on board. Australia is on the horizon.
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