Cuala won their first Dublin title in 2024 and followed that with a provincial crown. This weekend, they have the chance to become only the second club – after St Finbarr’s of Cork – to win senior club hurling and football titles.

With that thought in mind, attention had already moved to Croke Park this weekend and an All-Ireland final.

“Well, I suppose you can spin it whatever way you want,” Cuala boss Austin O’Malley said when asked about the quick turnaround.

“But realistically for us, it’s 60 minutes of football. When you pare it all back it’s 60 minutes of football and our whole season has been built on opportunity and relishing what’s in front of us and going for it and getting ourselves mentally and physically right.

“And I spoke earlier about we have loads of scaffolding in the sports science that goes around guys now. So everybody just downs tools for the next day or two and recover and if you can’t get yourself up for an All-Ireland final well then you shouldn’t be here.”

There is equity in the fact that Sunday’s opponents have the same turnaround, though they needed extra-time to see of Kerry’s Dr Crokes after the semi-finals were pushed back a week from their original date due to the weather. It was another reminder of the tight window in which the GAA runs off its competitions.

“I know it’s really, really tough and it’s difficult and the GAA are doing so much to try and I suppose remedy things like that as well.

“But I suppose the big thing even if you look at it the whole ethos of the GAA is amateur and so on that if we could get that maybe tidied up and done in the calendar year.

“I think in terms of it [being] done before Christmas. I think it’s really important if you think of families and commitments and everything that goes on beside that.

“But also if you think of it, we’re playing an All-Ireland final next weekend, the Dublin league starts on the 15th or 20th of February. In terms of that, just being aware of that, if we could maybe get it finished in the year it would probably make a lot of sense, but that’s what it is at the moment and we’re really looking forward to it. But I do understand the GAA calendar is so complex.

Saturday night also saw the end of Coolera-Strandhill’s fairytale. Back-to-back county champions and the first Sligo winners of the Connacht crown in 41 years, selector Con O’Meara saluted a brilliant campaign.

“It’s been a magic year. We had it tough in the Sligo championship with a number of injuries that we were struggling through games. We got them all back then.

“By the time we played [Pádraig] Pearses [in the final], we nearly had our full team back. We had our full team back today and you could see the difference in the football that we played when we got everybody back on pitch. It was a huge year. It was a great jump. Last year we won the first championship since 2005.

“That was a big break and we had lost quite a few finals in between. That was a massive relief. This year to kick on and win Connacht was massive to put the club on the map.

“I suppose the challenge is now what happens next year.”