Couchs becoming part of the furniture with Dublin

Family members lining out alongside one another is an integral element of Gaelic games. It is a manifestation of the community spirit at its core and while less prevalent at inter-county level than club, it's still far from unusual.

What must be close to unique however, is three siblings being called into a senior county panel at the same time, but so it was for Zoe Couch and her younger twin sisters Jody and Gaby when they got the call-up from Dublin in November 2019.

Members of the St Oliver Plunkett/Eoghan Ruadh club which also produced the famed Brogan clan, the Couch trio had made their mark through the various development squads before impressing at minor and intermediate level.

Jody and Gaby will be 22 in August. Zoe, who blazed the trail initially, turns 24 in November.

"Oliver Plunketts is just around the corner," Gaby explains. "Zoe got a leaflet in school about a GAA club and she said, 'I wanna go'. Me and Jody are a year and nine months younger so we wanted to do the same, to join the nursery as young as we could and it’s just been Plunketts ever since."

Having each other to lean on has undoubtedly been helpful as they climbed through the ranks, particularly in those early senior sessions.

"It was great to have familiar faces and familiar players going into a group of 30 new girls that you’ve never played with before. To have two people there that you knew their style of play just made it more comfortable.

"There were all these big names and I would have known the names and I’m like, 'Oh God, now I’m their team-mate. This feels weird.' But we settled in quite quickly and quite easily as well."

Not that there isn’t a healthy dose of sibling rivalry.

"There is always that competitiveness to us. You always wanna do