“THE AIM IS to get to the All-Ireland final and win the Brendan Martin Cup.”

It’s not exactly a state secret, but Cork captain Máire O’Callaghan says it straight.

There’s no point in dancing around it.

The Rebels are ladies football heavyweights, having won 11 All-Ireland titles in 12 years from 2005 to 2016. While they’ve gone close in recent years and are guaranteed contenders in the business end, that ’16 win is their most recent.

This is a drought of sorts in Cork ladies football terms, where success is measured in All-Irelands.

“We’re never short of motivation at the start of every year,” O’Callaghan says ahead of the Rebels’ Munster semi-final meeting with Waterford in Dungarvan today [throw-in 2pm]. Their 2022 championship opener, with all beginning once again.

“Your aim is always to get to the All-Ireland and we were really disappointed after last year’s [semi-final] defeat. You have to use that the right way and it drives you on again to want to not feel like that again.

“I think there’s a lot of teams going in for it this year,” she continues. “The way Meath come out of nowhere last year has really blown open the championship, and other counties are saying, ‘Why can’t it be us that breaks the status quo?’

“I think it will be a really interesting championship to see how it goes. There a lot of teams performing really well, the league final between Donegal and Meath was a cracking game, and a lot of teams are really finding their form coming into 2022.”

The Royals ended Cork’s 2021 in the most dramatic circumstances. They stunned the Rebels in the dying seconds of normal time in last year’s semi-final, before powering on in the extra period and booking a decider spot in their first year back in the senior ranks.

The rest is history; a maiden crown lifted and Dublin’s Drive for Five ended.

O’Callaghan admits she “hasn’t thought too much” about inflicting revenge on Meath in championship fare this summer, but it certainly would be nice.

“We’re just focusing one game at a time and if we do meet them in the semi or the final, then so be it. I think it’s great that we would’ve got there anyway.

“The aim is to get to the All-Ireland final and win the Brendan Martin Cup, and if we meet Meath along the way, then that would make a bit extra sweet, I suppose, to get some revenge.

“I would back us to be able to go toe-to-toe with them anyway and then whatever happens then after that…”

Meath celebrate beating Cork at the final whistle. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

Eamonn Murray’s All-Ireland champions were two-point winners when they met in their league opener in Navan, before a dreadful 12-point loss to rivals Dublin all but ended Cork’s involvement.

A win over this weekend’s opponents, the Déise, was their first of the season in early March, and that’s the last time they’ve played competitively.

“We’ve had a long lay-off since we left the league campaign,” O’Callaghan nods. “We had six weeks together of good tough training so we’re looking forward to the game at the weekend now.

“Look, it wasn’t a great league campaign for us at all. But I suppose we were never starting the year off too focused on the league at the same time. The league is always a good time to try new players and new positions and things like that, so that was always what we wanted to get out of the league.

“We did crash out a bit sooner than we were hoping… we were probably a bit unlucky with the group we got, the two All-Ireland finalists away in the first two games, so it was always going to be a tough start to the league for us.

“We weren’t aiming too hard to be getting a league final, we’ve got to the latter stages of the league before and it hasn’t really benefited us that much in the championship. It’s great to get competitive games but we’ve got six weeks of really good training together as well, which has been fantastic, so we can’t really complain about the preparation we’ve had.”

Shane Ronayne named his championship panel in recent weeks, with Australia-bound Erika O’Shea, Sadhbh O’Leary and Daire and Eimear Kiely among the notable absentees.

O’Callaghan “couldn’t begrudge” any players opting out to travel in the wake of the pandemic, but all involved have fully bought into the cause through Ronayne’s first year in charge.

“It’s been a pretty seamless transition in for Shane,” the Mourneabbey midfielder, who has played under him at club level in recent years, notes.

“He’s been involved with so many other teams as well, with UCC and the Cork U16s, a lot of the girls would’ve had him in some way shape or form before that, whether it be underage or with the college.

“A lot of the girls were familiar with him. It was pretty seamless. Everyone has really bought into it pretty quickly and it’s been really successful so far. The training has been good and the management team he’s brought has been really good so I can’t really fault any way in which the transition has gone.”

Shane Ronayne is in his first season in the Cork hot-seat. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

A big advocate for the split season, though admittedly she’d prefer if the league was slightly longer — “we barely had a chance to get going before we were out of it” — O’Callaghan, like Ronayne, is in her first year of a new job.

She’s captaining the side, and while she may not say this just as straight out, is surely hoping she can be the first Cork captain in quite some time to climb the steps of the Hogan Stand.

“It’s been really good,” O’Callaghan smiles. “It is a huge honour. I’m really grateful that I play with a club that has allowed me that opportunity to be the captain. If you win the county championship in Cork, you’re nominated with that club. It has been a huge honour and I’m really grateful for it.

“I have no shortage of people to ask for advice with those few extra bits, like my clubmates Doireann [O'Sullivan] and Ciara [O'Sullivan] have been captain before me and then Martina [O'Brien] last year, they’ve been a huge help as well for things I wouldn’t have even know that the captain should do. It’s been grand, it’s been really smooth to be honest, I can’t complain. I’ve been chatting to the girls the whole time to make sure I’m not forgetting anything.

“It’s a huge honour but I don’t think it’s changed my county experience too much yet so far. It hasn’t really changed how I would go about my business on matchday too much. We have loads of leaders in the dressing room.

“If there’s a message to be said, then I’ll say it, but I don’t feel the need to speak just to speak I suppose. There’s loads of girls with important messages in there and I just take it game-by-game and if I have something to say, I say it. But I wouldn’t say being captain has made me say I have to speak before every match or at training. I think it’s a bit more natural when whoever speaks, just speaks. We’ve loads of leaders in the group.”