Half a dozen games into this season's National League campaign, Mayo had cause for concern.
Sure, they'd beaten holders and All-Ireland champions Meath but they'd lost their five other Lidl Division 1 games, leaving them in a relegation battle with Donegal.
Four months later, Mayo are just a game away from a return to the TG4 All-Ireland senior final, with a Connacht title tucked away and their great rivals Galway in their slipstream.
For Saoirse Lally, it was never so much panic stations during those difficult spring months as a question of tidying up on their inefficiencies, particularly late on in games.
"If you look at the results, we tended to lose each game by only a couple of points," said defender Lally. "It was only small margins and we were just trying to focus on getting over those last few minutes in each game. We'd be up with maybe 10 minutes to go and then we'd just lose five or six points within 10 minutes. So it was about just holding the lead.
"Then we had a six-week break after the Connacht final to keep working on that."
16 July 2022; Injured Mayo player Saoirse Lally before the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Kerry and Mayo at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Mayo eventually stayed in Division 1 by beating Donegal in their final group game and used the subsequent training time wisely to eventually relieve Galway of the Connacht title, Mayo's first success since 2016.
But when they lost to Armagh in their opening group game, the doubts could easily have crept in again.
"We just had to forget about it," said Lally. "You could only focus on the next game which was against Laois and thankfully we won that one and got out of the group."
As it happened, only one of the four group winners, Kerry, went on to win their subsequent All-Ireland quarter-final tie so early slip ups weren't punished. In Mayo's case, it was used as vital learning and when they squared up to Galway yet again at the Championship's last eight stage, they knew from provincial experience that it was a game they could win.
They duly scraped through, with a point to spare, and will face Kerry in this Saturday's semi-final. It is a Mayo team that is learning all the time.
1 July 2023; Sinead Walsh of Mayo in action against Aimee Kelly of Laois during the TG4 LGFA All-Ireland Senior Championship match between Mayo and Laois at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar, Mayo. Photo by Tom Beary/Sportsfile
"You've the likes of Sinead Walsh, one of our main forwards, who is only finished her Leaving Cert," said third-year physiotherapy student Lally. "She got Player of the Match in a game there recently, she's a brilliant player. But then we also have a lot of wisdom in our team with the likes of Fiona McHale and Sinead and Lisa Cafferky as well. So it's a big mix.
"I still view myself as one of the younger players but maybe some of the others kind of view me as one of the older players at this stage!"
Now in her fifth season with Mayo, and based in Dublin, Lally makes the regular trek back home for training several times a week. She has team-mates in a similar position and they car-pool to keep costs down.
It's a labour of love and the ultimate goal is to get Mayo back to the summit of the Championship, where they last were in 2003. Their most recent final appearance was in 2017.
"With this game being in Thurles, I think that will be good for us because we don't really have a great track record in Croke Park," said Lally of Saturday's clash with a Kerry side rocked by the loss of captain Siofra O'Shea to an ACL injury.
"They had a great game against Meath in their quarter-final. They have some of the best forwards in the country but we feel it's about ourselves and how we can overcome the challenges and how we can improve from our own last day against Galway."
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