WEXFORD’S 2021 ALL-IRELAND intermediate ladies football final appearance ended in a 25-point hammering.

They’re back at this stage once again, and Roisin Murphy says it as it was.

Croke Park: The best place in the world when you win, one of the worst when you lose.

“Last year was very disappointing,” the captain deadpans. “The result was one thing but to get to that stage and not perform or completely underperform was really disappointing.

“We had a really tough year, our manager left in the middle of the year. Lizzy [Kent] came in then, and to fall the way we fell on the last day was hard and psychologically really hard to bring yourself back. It was a hard year.”

Slowly but surely, the majority of the group came back together and decided to go again, led by the “infectious” Kent.

“We sat down and spoke as a team about what we want to achieve,” Murphy recalls.

“After the year we had, this might sound a bit different, but the focus was about creating a space within our unit where the player was as valued for the person she was as much as the player on the pitch and that is quite different and feels quite strong, it takes you to a space, it’s almost a safe space within the squad which is really good.”

Waterford sports psychologist Emma Saunders played a huge part in that, the group previously availing of similar supports in 2013 or ’14 but deciding it was absolutely necessary after last year’s hammer blow.

“Getting there last year proved one thing to us that we are good enough to be there and I think that is one thing we are working on this year, we got to the league final and lost that and lost the Leinster final too, we keep putting ourselves in these positions and each time we are learning. We are really looking forward to Sunday but it’s about delivering the performance we are actually capable of.”

Those final defeats are “genuinely like being punched,” knowing the capability in the team. But Kelly and co. are well aware the best time to deliver is All-Ireland final day.

Sunday’s opposition? Laois. A team they know all too well. The sides met in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final and this year’s Leinster last-four battle, the Yellowbellies triumphing by two points on both occasions, the latter after extra-time.

An exciting, high-scoring game is expected; Aisling Murphy (Wexford), Mo Nerney and Erone Fitzpatrick (Laois) among the sharpshooters on both sides, with Aimee Kelly the Laois captain.

Kelly, like the majority of the panel, has never played at HQ before. “Laois ladies actually haven’t been in Croke Park in 21 years, since we won the senior in 2001,” she points out.

“We are obviously conscious that it’s very different from playing on any other pitch in the country, but at the end of the day, it’s still another game.”

The 2021 goal for Laois was to get to the All-Ireland final, but Murphy’s crew stopped Donie Brennan’s side in their tracks at the last hurdle before the Croke Park showpiece.

“I didn’t go up, I wasn’t able to because I would have been sick,” Kelly recalls. “I was so disappointed we lost the semi-final, so I watched the final at home. It was a tough watch, but the intermediate final is always a good game, it is a very competitive competition.”

“I think what Meath have done is amazing,” she later adds. “It’s a story in itself, it’s so inspirational. They lost a couple of intermediates along the way, finally got one in 2020, and then winning the senior… that’s an incredible story — I don’t know if it’s once in a lifetime but it doesn’t come around too often.”

As Kelly well knows, though self-admittedly a late bloomer on the inter-county scene. Commitment held her back in her younger days — she lived in Dublin for 10 years and then spent another one in Australia, before joining the panel in 2018.

“Delighted I did now,” she moved back to the O’Moore county from the capital during Covid, her work as a tax advisor with PwC allowing her to split her work between home and the office.

The ultimate one lies ahead on Sunday: Croke Park.

The best place in the world when you win, one of the worst when you lose.

Wexford v Laois, 2022 All-Ireland intermediate final — Sunday, 1.45pm, live on TG4