Mayo's dominance of women's Gaelic football for the last five years is expected to continue this Sunday when they face Cork at Pearse Stadium in the Suzuki National League final. Despite winning four of the last five All-Ireland crowns, they have not claimed a League title since 2000.

Like all great teams the main focus is to peak come the autumn. Yet, like the men's game, the relevance of the league has increased in time.

"The focus is always the championship but it was brilliant winning in 2000," said Mayo captain Nuala O'Shea.

"Sometimes teams use it as a stepping stone for the championship, like we've done in the last two years, but with so many new counties coming up, we knew if we did well it would really mean something this year."

Last week's ban on Mayo from all competitions, due to the jersey sponsorship fiasco by central council and subsequent re-admittance on appeal, has had little effect on their preparations.

"We were kind of sheltered from it," said O'Shea. "Finbar (Egan, Mayo manager) did his best to keep that between management and the county board. At the end of the day we're just players. We had an unofficial meeting Friday night and even at that stage we didn't know what would happen, so we just had to remain focused for the match on Sunday because that's all we're interested in."

However, a victory for Cork, the match is televised live on TG4 (5.0 p.m.), would go a long way in helping them find a sponsor.

"This is new territory for our team, but we have been improving all the time and if we are to be recognised as one of the best teams in Ireland, we should be playing in games like these," said captain Juliette Murphy.

After Dublin's breakthrough last year Cork's progression to the final shows that more counties are catching up with the standard-bearers from the west.