Cork's Amy O'Connor savours 'unbelievable' journey to All-Ireland senior camogie glory

In the end it was an emphatic victory for a side who had endured a few heartbreaking moments in finals since they lost won the O'Duffy Cup.

A record attendance of over 30,000 was there to see Cork make light work of Waterford on the August bank holiday weekend. A 29th All-Ireland crown for the Rebels, a first since 2018 for a team on a mission.

The narrow defeats to Galway and Kilkenny in the two previous deciders hurt. Satisfaction then when the aforementioned were cast aside en route to the Déise demolition.

Cork captain Amy O'Connor hit 3-07 that floored their Munster rivals: the hat-trick of green flags coming in the space of just over two minutes after the restart. No surprise then that the Knocknaheeny native was the recipient of the PwC GPA Women's Player of the Month award after her starring turn on Jones' Road.

Speaking to the media, O'Connor outlined the determination that was there in this campaign to put things right on All-Ireland final day.

"It went very well for us because we had put in such work throughout the year," she said.

"While, at times, people criticised us and at times things weren't going so well on the pitch, the level of effort and work we put in, it really showed and was displayed on the day of the All-Ireland Final.

"That is exactly what you want. Sometimes you work all year and the performance just doesn't come. We were probably promising that performance for a long time and maybe building towards that performance, I would say. We just focused on ourselves on the day, same when we played Galway, when we played Kilkenny. We knew if we focused on ourselves the performance would come.

On accounting for Galway and Kilkenny on the way, she added: "It was lovely to do it in the way that we did it,