Dublin Ladies Footballer Niamh Collins is preparing for another TG4 All Ireland Ladies Football Final.
By Cian O'Connell
"So the stadiums are empty, but the stakes have never been as high," Niamh Collins says about the 2020 TG4 Ladies Football All Ireland Championship.
It has been a deeply uncertain year, but a real sense of intrigue surrounds Sunday's decider between long time foes Dublin and Cork.
Collins, though, has adapated to the changed circumstances, the fact that matches are going ahead behind closed doors.
"After the Armagh game someone asked me if it felt like we were playing a challenge match because we had gone out to play in an empty stadium and I said, ‘Actually anything but’.
"The nervous energy in the dressing-room and the energy we brought onto the pitch could only be the kind of energy you feel in a Championship game."
The Armagh encounter was loaded with danger, but Dublin still found a way to survive and subsequently thrive.
Niamh Collins is a key player for the Dublin Ladies Football team.
"We wanted to stay in the competition desperately," Collins adds. "It still feels like Championship."
No significant deal is made about the winter element in the Dublin camp according to Collins. "I think you just have to adapt to the conditions you’re given," Collins remarks.
"I’ve obviously been fortunate enough to have played championship throughout the winter for the last couple of years.
"It is a different game to the lovely sunny summer football that you play in the beginning of September when the ball moves very fast and you’re not hitting a patch of mud running out.
"You just have to adapt to what you have. It can result in very entertaining, different styles of football. It’s certainly not the same."
Regardless of the weather Dublin's class endures. Cork are next on the agenda in what promises to be an intriguing tussle.
