The 2022 season was novel territory for Carla Rowe.
For the first time in her eight year senior career, she would not spend All-Ireland final day in the bowels of Croke Park preparing for the match. Instead, she would be at home in north county Dublin in the company of her teammates, watching the game and trying not to ponder where things had gone wrong.
Having been smothered by the Donegal blanket in the quarter-final in Carrick-on-Shannon, the Dubs were disinterested spectators on finals day, for the first time since 2013, the year before Rowe joined the senior panel.
They generally steered clear of HQ that day, with Rowe hosting her team-mates in her house in Naul.
"The girls actually came to my house out in the Naul," Rowe told RTÉ Sport. "And we watched it together.
"The whole team, the whole panel. The garden was used as well [laughs].
"You'd definitely be watching it because, you know, it's the All-Ireland final and you want to be there.
"But I just thought in that year, it was such a shock for us and such a disappointment, we wanted to just get together quietly.
"It's hard when that final whistle goes and you know what that feeling is that Meath had. And jealousy I suppose comes in there and you want to be back there. But you use that to drive on forward."
Their Leinster foes Meath completed back-to-back, winning comfortably against this weekend's opponents Kerry in the decider.
So, to ask the critical question - who were the crowd in Rowe's gaff supporting?
"Hmmm... No comment."
In some respects, it felt like the end of an era for the Dublin team, who'd reached eight finals on the trot between 2014 and 2021, winning four-in-a-row from 2017 to 2020.
Sinead Goldrick, Ciara Trant and Lyndsey Davey were among those who stepped away from the panel in the off-season, while Mick Bohan - whose immediate impulse to depart after the Donegal loss disappeared in time - had to engage in sustained campaign of persuasion to keep the hugely decorated Sinead Aherne on board.
Nonetheless, it was an uncertain future for a team who had become used to the big-time.
"It's always the goal to be back in Croke Park. At the start of the year, it was probably the first year where you might have questioned that with this Dublin team.
"I suppose when you were writing down the list of players who were leaving the panel, there were some names that you'd have said you'd never replace.
"I think any team that has had success and then all of a sudden loses in an All-Ireland quarter-final, you couldn't but think of the worst of the worst.
"And what could come if there's a mass exodus of players or management. What does that mean? Would it be rebuilding for a couple of years?
"There's only so much time you can waste thinking of that before you have to become proactive in chatting to the girls and getting the group back together.
"And start to do a reflection on the year previous and then start looking forward to the year coming. We got that done and it's worked out really well for us."
That parrallels with the men's team have often been drawn given their shared glut of success in the late 2010s, a run which ended abruptly for both in 2021. However, while the men's renaissance in 2023 was largely driven by the return of experienced legends of the recent past, the women's team has resulted from a blend of the old and the new.
Younger players like Niamh Crowley and Abbey Shields came on stream, while the likes of Rowe, now installed as captain, were asked to assume greater leadership within the squad.
While the league was promising, yielding five league wins from seven, they suffered substantial losses in Tralee and Tuam respectively, and fell again to Kerry in the championship group stage game in Parnell Park. However, that latter defeat only occurred after a rousing second half rally from the Dubs, Bohan insisting that it was the moment when he started to believe this Dublin team could be capable of doing something in 2023.
They subsequently demolished both Donegal and Cork by double digit margins in the knockout phase to reach a ninth final in 10 seasons. For Rowe, the year away has made her appreciate finals day more.
"Obviously, when you start you're young and naive and you think you'll get back to All-Ireland finals every single year.
"To be honest, myself and a few of the older girls, we're very lucky in that we've only played in All-Ireland finals apart from 2022. I think this year is a little bit different in that we have that hunger, we now appreciate being here even more. Certainly me, anyway."
The Dublin manager firmly fixed the tag of favourites on Kerry during Tuesday's press day, insisting they've been "the best team all year."
Most of the romance certainly surrounds Dublin's opponents, with Kerry seeking a first All-Ireland title in the ladies code since 1993.
"As a player, you don't really think about how you could be playing," says Rowe. "Kerry play a really great brand of football, which we'll look forward to playing.
"Hunger, you can look at in many different ways. We know what it feels like to win and we want that feeling. We equally know what it feels like [to lose], similar to Kerry. They're going to have huge hunger. But so will we in different ways."
On Sunday, much of the hype surrounds Kerry great Louise Ni Muircheartaigh, star of the women's code, now in her 16th year as a senior and still chasing her first All-Ireland title. Rowe, as it happens, has a personal link to the Ballyferriter player and appeared to have swung the transfer of the summer in the women's game.
"Louise is an amazing player and I actually know her quite well. Her brother is married to one of my team-mates at home in the club. Unfortunately, she's a really nice person as well.
"Bits. She'd be down looking at her brother playing. She was down during the year. I got her wearing the Clann Mhuire jacket, my club jacket. Everyone thought she was getting a transfer!
"But yeah, she's an amazing footballer. Nobody could say any different. She's having a brilliant season. It's a threat that we'll have to look at and get our heads around."
Follow a live blog on the TG4 All-Ireland Senior, Junior and Intermediate finals on Sunday, with the senior final of Dublin v Kerry (4pm), on RTE.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
