Cork's Niamh Cotter has had 'massive impact' on Kilmacud Crokes
Club Football Crokes Castleisland Brennan/sportsfile Championship Ladies Niamh All Picture: Ireland Of Desmonds Cotter Against Senior Kilmacud Final Daire Semi
An athletics scholarship in the US was apparently on the table for Niamh Cotter as a talented teenage distance runner.
The Glengarriff native knocked it back though, preferring instead to enrol at UCC, stick with Gaelic football and see where that took her.
Eight years after winning an All-Ireland in her debut senior season of 2016 with Cork, Cotter is now based in Dublin and a key figure with AIB All-Ireland club finalists Kilmacud Crokes.
The journey from there to here, and Saturday's Croke Park decider against four-in-a-row chasing Kilkerrin-Clonberne, has been an adventurous one.
A brief summary goes something like this; a year studying law and working in Canada across 2017/2018, a bad back injury in January 2020, a substitute appearance in the December 2020 All-Ireland final with Cork and a full-time relocation to Dublin to play with Crokes.
Three Dublin and Leinster titles later, she scored 2-4 in the recent semi-final win over Castleisland Desmonds to secure the final place, the club's first ever.
"She is just one of those players who since she became involved with Crokes has had a massive impact, she is constantly giving it her all," said team-mate and long-time Dublin player Lauren Magee.
"Even when she was not playing, she was involved in fundraisers with Crokes and all that type of stuff. Her presence on and off the pitch is big. The way she reads the game, the way she plays the game, she looks like one of those players that doesn't do much but then you are trying to mark her and it is impossible.
"She brings a lot of experience with her from her own success with Cork. She's just great, on and off the pitch, and the one big thing really is that she gives it her all, all of the time."
Grace Kos, Magee's midfield partner, provides another link to Cork.
Dublin player Kos, recently snapped up by AFLW outfit GWS Giants, is a niece of former Cork football star Michael Shields.
There are even stronger Galway links to the Crokes team that will pitch up at GAA Headquarters.
Crokes goalkeeper Dearbhla Gower and attacker Ailbhe Davoren were both part of the Galway team that lost to Kerry in this year's All-Ireland final, with Davoren as captain.
They will come up against a number of Galway colleagues on Saturday.
"I suppose there is that bit of insight they have but it is nothing that we probably don't know anyway," said Magee, referencing Crokes' semi-final defeat after extra-time to Kilkerrin-Clonberne last year. "They are going to play the way they always play, so we just look at it that way."