Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie final: Antrim v Down (Kingspan Breffni Park, 3.45pm today, live on BBC iPlayer and RTE News channel)
ELITE was re-defined at the end of October, and the Intermediate Championship re-configured without some leading counties – yet Antrim camogie captain Maeve Connolly believes they're capable of testing themselves against top teams.
After all, her own club Loughgiel has pushed Slaughtneil hard in recent seasons, en route to the Derry side winning three All-Irelands and reaching this year's final.
"Any player would like to think that they're capable, with hard work, of reaching that sort of level. We're very lucky in Loughgiel, we've had a great bunch of girls, who've really driven camogie on.
"Unfortunately, the last four years we've been really unlucky in Ulster Finals against Slaughtneil – but you can take positivity from the fact that Slaughtneil have been so dominant on the club scene, and to come so close to them obviously it makes you feel you're in and around that area.
"Bringing that through to county, it gives you the experience of the big day, the big occasion, playing against some of the best players in Ireland, so it definitely gets you up to speed."
Irish government guidelines ruled out the involvement of second teams from Dublin, Cork, Galway, Tipperary, and Kilkenny, which arguably benefited the likes of Antrim and today's opponents Down.
Yet Connolly hopes that particular Covid-enforced change is only a one-off for the Intermediate competitition, saying: "We just have to take what's put in front of us, whether that's an advantage or a disadvantage…
"I'm sure the girls in those teams involved which are no longer allowed to play were absolutely gutted. I know if we'd been told that we couldn't take part this year we would have been absolutely gutted, annoyed.
"I don't see this as something that should be carried forward. I wish the competition was happening as normal and we were playing all the teams we were supposed to have played. But we're in the situation we're in, Covid has brought this about, so we just have to go with it."
Otherwise, Connolly is positive about the benefits that this strange year has brought for Antrim camogie, explaining:
"First of all, the condensed season, with the whole championship happening within a couple of months, that has definitely brought in a lot of girls with other commitments – like Nicole [O'Neill] has a wee boy, so maybe in previous years she wouldn't have had the time. Caitrin [Dobbin] has commitments with dancing, so she's never had the time to give up for county.
"Also the timing at the end of the year has suited a lot of girls more so than before, because a lot of people tend to concentrate on the club scene in May, June, July, whereas there's nothing else going on now.
"We go to work and camogie, that's all we do, so we're all glad to have camogie to get out of the house and have a reprieve from doing nothing else.
"For the first time in a good wee while we do have all the best players in the county playing for the county."
Connolly also gives much credit for that to the management team appointed for 2020, namely Paul 'Humpy' McKillen, Jim 'Jingo' McKernan, and Elaine Dowds:
"I don't think a lot of the girls playing at the minute would have signed up if they didn't have such respect for the management team. I knew when they were appointed at the start of the year that good things were going to happen.
"They've made things better and better as they've gone along. Training is hard, they talk a lot of sense. They do anything that we ask, they do everything that we need."
The new mentors certainly had a positive effect, with Antrim recording impressive victories over both Dublin and Tipperary in the League before lockdown."
Yet technology teacher Connolly knows opponents Down are a well-oiled machine, having reached the Intermediate decider in 2018:
"They're a very experienced team, they've been together a lot longer than ourselves, they've been knocking on the door of this All-Ireland over the past two or three years. I have nothing but respect for them – like ourselves they have a mixture of experience and young, skilful players."
The Saffrons last reached the Intermediate Final in 2011, losing out to Wexford, but only Orlagh O'Hara and Chloe Drain remain from that panel, with only the former getting game-time as a sub.
"Those two teams are complete polar opposites," says Connolly, "because at the minute it's young girls who are dominating the county team, the likes of Maeve Kelly and Roisin McCormack who have played at juvenile level for Antrim the whole way through and been really successful.
"They've brought a completely new energy to the county, given Antrim the lease of life we need to get back to the level we were at around a decade ago. The years in between, there was no real success."
This year has brought plenty of surprises, and the coverage of today's match is another boost:
"I know all the games have been streamed so far, but connection problems have sometimes meant not everybody has had great access to that. The fact we're getting coverage on BBC iPlayer and RTE is absolutely amazing. I never thought I'd get that opportunity in my career.
"I wouldn't have thought at the start of the year that we'd been lining out in an All-Ireland final. We were thinking about two or three years down the line."
If centre back Connolly does get to lift the Jack McGrath Cup this afternoon, "it would be an absolute dream come true. When you are a wee girl lining out for U10 and U12 Camogie teams, everybody has the notion that you want to win an All-Ireland.
"Unfortunately All-Irelands don't come around that often. Whenever you realise that and you wake up on the morning of an All-Ireland, you'll want to grab that opportunity by the nails.
"Every single girl on that team, that's their ambition, that's where we want to be and that's what we want to do - so it would mean everything to us."
