Women's football final: Angie McNally was all set to pack it in. At 35 she had done more than enough in a sporting career as a soccer and basketball international before shelving both sports to go in search of an All-Ireland medal.

Everything was going to plan until the final two minutes of last year's final. Leading 0-5 to 0-4, Dublin just needed to hang on. Then the great Cora Staunton dropped a bomb in around the Dublin square. It broke kindly for Diane O'Hora who dispatched the ball to the net.

And that, for McNally at least, seemed to be that.

Yet, come January this year she was back training. Back doing what she does best. New manager John O'Leary had other ideas about where her strengths lay and duly redeployed her from midfield to full forward but at least she was still there. Why, though?

"Last year I made up my mind that I was going if we won but I've been enjoying myself this year. I haven't really been thinking about it, others have been thinking about it more than I have and making an issue about my age but I don't really think about it once I'm enjoying it and feeling good."

There was unfinished business as well. It would have been different if they had given a performance even remotely resembling their true form so this year they intend to leave everything out on the pitch.

"Obviously we don't want to wake up on Monday morning having lost the game. That feeling . . .," she shudders before adding: "I'm sure the Mayo lads are going through it right now. What really gets to you is to put in so much effort and not to perform.

"It would be different to perform and to be beaten by a better team but what killed us, and killed me in particular, is we knew we were so much better than that.

"It took us a long time to put our heads together after it. People think: oh well you've lost an All-Ireland get on with it, but when you put your heart and soul into something and it means absolutely everything to you it's hard to take when you lose."

The poor spectacle of that final has since been explained by subsequent complaints about the Croke Park surface. GAA president Seán Kelly says he is watching it like a hawk but the fact remains it is different to anything else they had played on, especially when it rains.

"It's not a pitch that you are allowed train on, you know? When it's wet it is impossible. If you saw even the pictures from last year everything was on the ground. When you hop the ball it just skids everywhere. You have no control and you can't prepare for that training-wise either. There's no pitch like it.

"I think the weather will have a big impact on the game," continued McNally. "If it stays dry I think it will allow both teams, who are good footballing teams, to play a great game."

Galway certainly arrive with a pedigree to be feared, as their treble whammy over Mayo showed this year, along with two victories over Dublin. Times are changing now as other teams begin to stake their claim. Like the men's game, it is no longer about the superiority of one or two sides.

"I'd never knock a Mayo team because they set the standards. It's just that everybody else is rising to those standards. Now the other thing is they cannot have the desire that the rest of us have because they have won it four times already. We got the hunger, the edge that Galway also showed this year."

The only change in their ranks was the departure of their manager Mick Bohan, now on the men's backroom team, a decision that did not initially sit well with McNally or several of her colleagues.

"I personally was disappointed when Mick stepped down because we were only getting used to his style. It was really all coming together. I'm disappointed for him - no disrespect to John - that he is not with us on Sunday. He had a huge impact on turning our programme around."

McNally says Bohan brought a new level of preparation to the panel of players who were still very young. As McNally rightly pointed out she was mature enough but the lessons didn't slip her by.

"It's not just about playing football on the day. All your preparation, what you eat, drink - everything. That was ingrained in the team and it allowed us to change and now look were it has brought us."

It has brought them back to the summit. Tomorrow only one county flag can be planted on the Everest of women's football. Neither side has been there before, although Galway won the 2002 junior final in Croke Park.

Dublin know how to lose there. Whichever side has learned the life lesson the most could be the crucial difference.

Coming back like Dublin have is an achievement in itself, albeit a pointless one to them individually if they don't succeed tomorrow.