Vera Pauw's single-mindedness and absolute dedication to her methods were both a driving force and corrosive influence for the Republic of Ireland.
The 60-year-old Dutch woman took the reins four years ago after Ruud Dokter - then the FAI's high performance director - identified her as the perfect candidate to build on the progress made by previous boss Colin Bell.
She took some persuading; after chewing over the offer while on holiday in Austria with her husband Bert van Lingen, himself a highly experienced coach, Pauw decided to go for it.
She sensed an opportunity to emulate the success enjoyed with her native Netherlands, who she led to the semi-finals of Euro 2009, their first appearance at a major tournament.
Dokter concurred and said at her unveiling: "I can honestly say the success of the women's team in Holland is due to this lady here next to me. She was the driving force behind the development of women's football in Holland."
Once she took the gig, Pauw quickly began to mould the team in her image.
She was blunt, uncompromising and clinical. In her second game in charge, Ireland conceded a 92nd-minute equaliser to Greece but there was little sympathy from the manager afterwards.
"Everybody has fought their butt off, and done everything they could, but it needs to be better," she said matter-of-factly.
That result would come back to haunt Ireland as they fell short of making the play-offs for Euro 2022, their fate effectively sealed when they were beaten 1-0 by Ukraine after a freak Aine O'Gorman own goal.
Ireland, having lost their nerve that night, needed a strong character to pull them up off the floor and provide the leadership to convince them they could go again. Pauw fit the bill.
The FAI offered her a fresh two-year deal which she accepted in February 2021, but only after a period of reflection. Her stock was high and there was relief all round when she decided stay in charge for a tough World Cup qualification group.
Third seeds behind Sweden and Finland, Ireland battled their through the qualifiers, pipping the Finns to second place and then turning over Scotland in Glasgow in the play-offs. It was a monumental breakthrough that indisputably changed the women's game in this country, but the path to glory has never run smoothly for Pauw.
In May 2021, she became embroiled in a public dispute with then 18-year-old midfielder Tyler Toland and her father Maurice.
Toland, capped 13 times, was an unused sub in the Greece game. She has not been included in an Ireland squad since.
Maurice Toland claimed his daughter had been unfairly frozen out and on the receving end of overly harsh criticism. "Vera told Tyler that she looked 'too leggy', that her legs had got 10cm bigger since she moved to [Manchester] City and suggested that she would pick up an injury 'by the second week in November' if she maintained the training she was doing," he said at the time.
Pauw counter-claimed she had been subjected to "harassment and intimidation" by Maurice Toland over Tyler's omissions from the squad. He strongly denied the allegations.
In December 2022, not long after Ireland had booked their ticket to the World Cup, Pauw was named in a report which alleged that while manager of Houston Dash from November 2017 to September 2018 she shamed players for their weight and attempted to exert excessive control over their eating habits.
Pauw empatically denied all allegations made her against her, but the story has hung over her like a dark cloud ever since.
In early July, just as Ireland were putting the finishing touches to their World Cup prep, The Athletic published a lengthy piece chronicling Pauw's time at the Dash, with four ex-players and three former members of staff all interviewed under the cover of anonymity. One player described her methods as "abusive and inappropriate"; another said she "created a culture of fear".
Before the story was published, her representative Ciaran Medlar had been in preliminary talks with the FAI about a contract extension but those talks stalled and Pauw entered a period of purgatory that frustrated her and the squad.
Questions about her future arose consistently both before, during and after the World Cup. Several senior players were asked directly if they'd like her to stay on; none emphatically said yes.
Pauw's relationship with captain Katie McCabe in particular became strained, with the pair having an on-pitch dispute during the Nigeria game in Brisbane.
McCabe wanted Pauw to make changes in the latter stages of the match; Pauw refused, saying in the post-match press conference: "If Katie McCabe wants a change, it doesn't mean… she's not the coach."
McCabe subsequently tweeted out a zipped-mouth emoji noted for staying silent when wanting to say something.
In the intense bubble of a major tournament, any cracks will be widened and exposed, and there's no question there were some issues Down Under.
There were grumblings about a lack of communication to players not in the starting XI, annoyance that the team wasn't practising set-pieces enough and a general desire to break out of the rigid, defensive approach Pauw tends to favour.
Some players were left bemused when Abbie Larkin was brought on for Lucy Quinn at half-time of the Canada game, unaware the change had been made until they were just about to tip off for the second half.
Such complaints may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things but they are often symptoms of bigger problems. Ultimately Pauw lost a core of the dressing room who perhaps had become jaded by a highly structured, conservative system.
The challenge for the next manager will be to build on the incredible momentum that's been achieved in the last two years.
Pauw will be hurt by how it's ended, but she departs having carved herself into Irish football history. A tough, uncompromising individual, she showed remarkable courage when publicly revealing she was raped as a young player in the Netherlands, and was genuine in her gratitude to the Irish public of their support in the wake of that revelation.
She enjoyed the public backing of the fans right to the end, her name being sung with gusto at the team homecoming on Dublin's O'Connell Street a few weeks ago.
It's unlikely she'll stay out of work for too long, as long as she has the desire to accept a new challenge.
"I need to be honest about my private situation," she said after first taking the Ireland job in the autumn of 2019. "My husband is 17 years older than I am, he’s 73 now.
"Biking is our big passion so in 10 years’ time we will not climb the Tourmalet or the Mont Ventoux any more, and now we do. That is why I don’t look further than my commitment to 2021, and then we’ll see."
The journey lasted a little longer than she initially anticipated and shorter than she ultimately would have liked, but it's over now. A new chapter awaits for manager and country.
