Gaelic Games/Women's Football All-Ireland: The All-Ireland final can't come soon enough for Angie McNally. Gavin Cummiskey talks to a player Dublin need to be on top form

The distinguished sporting career of Angie McNally reaches its pinnacle tomorrow when she faces Mayo in Croke Park. Considering what she has achieved to date, only an All-Ireland final could overshadow what has gone before.

An international in both basketball and soccer - with 24 caps - she only took up Gaelic football at the age of 27, eight years ago, but the GAA blood runs deep in the McNally clan.

Her father, Paddy, is a staunch Ballinteer St John's man, while younger brother Johnny was corner forward on the Dublin team that won the Leinster championship in 2002.

"Last year there was a great buzz between us about all the years I have been playing and suddenly he gets on it (the Dublin team) one year and plays in the Leinster final," she said.

The roles have now been reversed with Johnny watching his sister try to bring back a first ever women's All-Ireland title to the capital.

"But he has been really supportive this year, a great help with what boots to wear and what it's going to be like in Croke Park."

In this regard, McNally and her team-mates will need all the help they can get. Mayo are going for a fourth title in five years, in what is becoming an annual pilgrimage to headquarters on a scale previously only enjoyed by Kerry footballers.

Surprisingly, the Dublin players have never played in Croke Park together so they are entering uncharted territory.

Angie McNally has at least been involved in several high-pressure situations on her international travels in basketball and soccer.

"Nothing compared to this," she quickly points out. "I think the biggest crowd I have ever played in front of is 7,000 people, if even that. I have never experienced anything like this before.

"Obviously we're not going to get 80,000 people at the game, or anything like that, but, of course, it means the same. I've grown up steeped in Gaelic tradition, but my mam and dad are so excited. My dad rings me every day. He is equally looking forward to it as if it was Johnny."

Although Gaelic games are the number one sport at home, her ability at basketball allowed her to go on a scholarship to Long Island university, near New York, where she played for four years.

However, the chances to pursue basketball further were limited as there was no professional woman's league in the United States at the time. So, in 1995, after her final year, she continued in her job for a few months - in an insurance company on the 42nd floor of the World Trade Centre - before returning home to play basketball for Meteors, then Tolka Rovers. After that, a series of events pushed her into the present situation.

"I only started playing soccer (with Rathfarnham) to keep fit for basketball and then I started playing Gaelic football because my sister started playing it."

Her natural ball skills meant she was an instant hit. However, when she started, the county set-up was still in the dark ages, at least in comparison to soccer.

"When I started playing football for Dublin we were training up in the Phoenix Park. We had to scrape together a set of gear. The money wasn't put into ladies' football. The ladies' soccer benefited from the men, and, in fairness, ladies' soccer was well looked after by the FAI. They acknowledged the ladies' involvement in sport much quicker I think than the GAA did.

"But now it's just really, really taken off. I think the fact that Dublin are in a final, I don't know why this is, but it seems to make a bigger difference to the profile."

After being on the losing side for three Leinster finals the breakthrough finally arrived. With all McNally's commitments, something had to give - she resolved to focus on football.

Once Dublin knew they could win the provincial crown the bar began to rise even higher. The defeat to Mayo in the semi-final last year was the turning point. Several of the team were playing different sports, ranging from basketball to hockey. They made a pact to put all their energies into Dublin football.

"I think we learned a great deal from losing last year against Mayo. One of the key things is if you are playing other sports, and I know myself, you don't give 100 per cent to either.

"We just decided as a group, and it's brought us tighter and it means more now that we have all done it."

Manager Mick Bohan has dropped his other commitments to the Dublin minors and his coaching techniques are something McNally thinks have greatly contributed to the success.

"The whole management team, they have to get so much credit. They each got separate jobs to do and as a group they have allowed us just to concentrate on being footballers."

The bond they have developed out in St Anne's Park in Clontarf throughout the year is something that may stand to them in the closing stages of tomorrow's game.

"To get 30-odd women together and have a good atmosphere, because easily with women you know yourself what could go wrong, but there is a lovely atmosphere there and we all look after each other.

"There is a nice blend of youth and maturity, and all of that kind of thing. There is a real sense of family. Obviously success helps."

Come 3.10 p.m. tomorrow all that counts is how Dublin react in the heat of the battle. A repeat of the virtuoso performance McNally gave against Kerry in the semi-final could go a long way to halting Mayo's gallop.