History is on the line for Waterford on Sunday when the Minor Camogie side line out in Nowlan Park for the All-Ireland Final.
Tipperary will be standing opposite the Déise, who appear in their second straight decider.
A major win over Cork in the semis sent Mark English's side through to the final. It was 3.10 to 1.09 at the full-time whistle in Kilcommon last week, with Waterford improving on their drawn result with the Leesiders in the group stage.
Cork scored 1.09 in that group game also, but in the knockout stage, Waterford were buoyed to victory with two quick-fire goals at the start of the second half when Rebecca Farrell and Eimear O Neill rattled the back of the net to put five points between the sides.
"Yeah, kind of lucky to be eight points to seven at halftime," says Manager Mark English.
"They missed a handy free before the break to put two between us, but there was only one [team] relatively happy going in at the break. Second half we came out and really turned the screw on Cork, we really upped the work rate and our fitness really showed."
As they neared the end, Cork had pulled themselves back into the contest to make it a one-score game on 2.09 to 1.09, but a penalty for Waterford drove the final nail into the coffin.
De La Salle attacker Maggie Gostl stepped forward to send the penalty to the back of the net to make it an eight-point win.
"Maggie is fantastic," says English. "Even the way she trains - she trains at 100 miles an hour and the rest of the players feed off that. She got 1.07 and it's not a coincidence that she got that because you see the performances in training."
The result not only improved on the drawn group game but also gave Waterford some revenge for last year's final.
Cork had beaten the Déise in the 2023 decider by 13 points and with revenge best served cold, enough time had passed since last year's final to make it all the sweeter - and while this writer might say that revenge was the order of the day - the manager could not disagree more.
"Look, last year is forgotten at this stage. We never mentioned the word 'revenge.' There was nothing about that at all. It's a new year with a relatively new panel"
Gostl, Eimear O’Neill, Katelyn Gardner, Alex Healy, Hannah McGrath, Katelyn Lyons and Emma Fitzgerald are among the others that remain from last year and that gives them a very strong core of talent and experience.
If they are to get over the line on Sunday, they will need to go back to the well once again and turn over a previously losing result.
When Waterford and Tipperary met in the Munster final in February, it was the Premier who came away celebrating, but they have met once since then and the plaudits went the way of the Déise.
Their 2.07 to 1.06 win over Tipp in the group stage shows that they can beat the Munster neighbours, but this time, it's in a game where all the marbles are on the table.
Tipperary came through a heavy semi-final meeting with Kilkenny where extra time was needed to separate the sides. The dangerwomen - Caoimhe Stakelum, Paula Quirke, Sarah Corcoran and Danielle Ryan - will need to be watched, with Stakelum nailing 1.09 in their losing result against the Déise in the group.
For a county like Waterford, who had not played in an All-Ireland at the minor grade, to now be back in the decider just twelve months later shows the growth of the game in the county and now the hopes are pinned on the collars of this young team to get the job done on the biggest stage of all.
