It has been a difficult week in Kerry after their men’s senior football team were left to fill the very public role of vanquished heel in a plucky underdog story where the crowd favourite won the day.But if the mood has been low in the Kingdom since last weekend, at least Kerry folk don’t have long to wait for another chance to see the county try to land silverware at Croke Park – with their women’s side facing Galway in the TG4 All-Ireland senior football decider on Sunday at 4.15pm.The Kerry women’s team have themselves been travelling a road to redemption this season after exiting the championship at the semi-final stages in 2025 following a meek performance against Meath.The Kingdom were reigning All-Ireland champions at that stage but lost their grip on the Brendan Martin Cup following a 2-12 to 1-9 defeat to the Royals in Tullamore.A trip was hastily organised to Portugal by most of the Kerry squad and they watched Dublin beat Meath in last year’s final at a poolside in the Algarve. But even before they had time to process the defeat, pretty much the entire panel had committed to returning in 2026 to make amends.“I think a lot of people made their decision nearly straight after the semi-final last year that they weren’t going to go out like that and weren’t going to leave the Kerry ladies jersey after a performance like that,” says Kerry captain Síofra O’Shea.“I think a lot of people decided that night that they were going to give it another go again this year. I’m delighted that they did. We got some new young players in as well, which really boosted the group. They’ve made a massive difference as well.“I think being together as a group [on the trip to Portugal] at that time was definitely important and it probably bonds you a bit more going through those tough days.“When we came back this year, there was just one goal in mind and that was getting back to All-Ireland final day just to give us a chance of getting over the line again.”Kerry footballer Síofra O’Shea and Galway footballer Kate Geraghty with the Brendan Martin Cup. Photograph: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile This will be Kerry’s fourth All-Ireland senior final appearance in five years – having lost in 2022 and 2023 before triumphing in 2024.In that 2024 decider, Kerry beat Galway 3-14 to 0-11. It was Galway’s third All-Ireland final defeat since claiming their maiden Brendan Martin Cup in 2004 so they will be determined to win a second title this weekend.The Kerry team trained last Sunday morning before collectively watching their male counterparts in action on television against Mayo. Despite the loss, O’Shea says the women’s team had already decided the outcome of the men’s game would have no bearing on their preparations.“Our psychologist is great and we had a good meeting with her last Friday before the men’s final, just that we’d be sticking to our own game no matter what happens. She’s been great with us and just to focus on our own journey,” she says.“Losing to Mayo in the final, they were obviously disappointed, but to see the scenes in Mayo and the scenes in Croke Park after, I saw a lot of Kerry people stayed to watch it, it was just a historic day.“It’s not an easy thing to do for the lads then to go down to a losing homecoming but to see the amount of people that turned up for them was obviously great.”[ My seven-year-old saw Mayo win Sam at his first final. What are the chances?Opens in new window ]For the Kerry women, their season turned after an opening round loss to Waterford in the Munster senior football championship in late April. The defeat put the Kingdom in a situation where another loss would have seen their championship completely unravel.“Yeah, it was definitely a turning point. I suppose going into those other Munster championship games then, we knew we had to win. Every game since then has been a must-win in the group.“I think it’s probably brought out the best of us. We’ve been learning from each game, we have been winning, but there are definitely things that we’ve tried to improve on in every single game.“No different to the semi-final, we’ve taken learnings into training over the last two weeks to try and improve for the next day.”Kerry beat Dublin at the semi-final stages this year with a very impressive 2-16 to 1-9 win. O’Shea scored 1-8 in that game and Kerry have been one of the teams to have really embraced the new rules.“I’m really enjoying football this year. It’s definitely given us a bit more space inside in the forwards and as a forward, you love those ‘one v one’ battles and I think we’re getting a few more of them this year than we did over the last few years.“Different things like the kick-out mark and the solo-and-go are helping speed up the game as well. It’s probably removed that cynical edge out of the game as well because you can’t foul someone and hold up a play to get loads of players back behind the ball. You can keep it moving straight away and that’s definitely helping.”