Aileen Wall on new life, 42 in a row and an All-Ireland title that would mean everything

It's not unreasonable to suggest that winning the county title every year would lose some of its lustre over time.

Particularly when clocking up a Gaelic games record of 42 successive crowns.

But Waterford senior women's football final day was particularly memorable for Ballymacarbry’s Aileen Wall this year. And not just because they needed extra-time to get past Comeragh Rangers.

The captain lifted the cup and then rushed 35 kilometres straight from Lemybrien to Clonmel hospital, where her older sister Mairéad was giving birth to son Mikey.

"My sister was due three weeks after the county final and her husband went on a trip to Dubai, thinking nothing would happen," former Déise star Wall tells RTÉ Sport. "I suppose we never thought that she would go three weeks early, it was her first child.

"She rings me on the morning of the county final, saying 'I’m actually in hospital in Clonmel'. I was her back-up birthing partner or whatever you want to call it. I accepted the cup, did my speech, handed it off to someone and ran and went to the hospital. Her husband made it home with 15 minutes to spare actually but I wasn’t allowed leave! We were all in it then at that stage. She had a lovely little baby boy that night, at 11 o’clock. [Another sister] Linda had a baby three weeks before that as well, so it was all go. It was a big day, one that I’ll remember for definite."

And that incredible record of 42 in a row?

"From the outside, maybe it’s expected. We don’t take anything for granted. We’ve had exceptional challenges over the years. People see this record and they think, 'God, ye’re walking it’… we’re not.

"They’re getting much harder to win. This year was the tightest game we ever had, and over the last few years I’ve remembered