For Dublin, Sunday would ultimately provide the opportunity to end a painful run of defeats in the All Ireland Ladies football finals.
And in beating Mayo by a 4-11 to 0-11 score, they also bridged a seven year gap since the last All Ireland win.
Cliodhna O'Connor was goalkeeper for the 2010 triumph and she joined Joe to analyse the 12-point victory for Dublin.
"It was edgy at half time. It was very close. Dublin had created chances and it did cross my mind, are we going to regret those chances that we didn't capitalise on," she said.
"Again, respect to Mayo in terms of having two sin bins and being able to minimise the damage in that period. It was exceptional and a great credit to them.
"I suppose, I still felt though Mayo kicked a lot of wides in the first half as well, so they'd missed opportunities. I kind of felt both teams were going to push on in the second half. I did think Dublin were looking more dangerous if they could just convert or execute their chances in front of goal. There seemed to be a bit more spark to them in front."
She also explained that Dublin had remained on the front foot throughout in terms of seeking to attack often, while pointing that unlike the previous rounds when Cora Staunton was on the end of Mayo moves, this time O'Connor "didn't see that this time" and that the "Dublin defence had their homework done" to slow Mayo attacks.
Off the field of play, it was also very positive with a strong 46,000 attendance at Croke Park and good coverage in the weeks building up to the final.
"To be honest, it felt like a massive step forward for the game and for those of us who were lucky to be there yesterday, they talk about sporting events being an occasion and maybe that's been something that's been missing in women's sports up to now," said O'Connor.
Cliodhna O'Connor. INPHO
"But yesterday with the extra crowd and the atmosphere and the quality of football, there was definitely a sense of occasion and I suppose you had that feeling as a spectator of 'I was at that match' and you can talk to people about it. You felt you were special that you were at it, obviously for me for the Dublin win but also a massive jump forward in attendance and I don't think there's one thing that you can put that down to."
She also touched on how the coverage in the lead up had been "different".
"I think there's a different tone to it. More analysis. There was more about the actual tactical stuff around the game," she continued.
"Obviously you've got the Cora Staunton factor. She's a massive figure in Ladies football and in women's sport in Ireland. Everybody knows Cora, so she brought something to it. The symmetry between the men's and the women's football was an extra bit. The dual sponsorship - so AIG having both men's and women's and I know in Mayo as well they have a joint campaign. So all of that together pushed things to a new level that we have to keep achieving now."
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