You have to go back to 2016 for the last time the Dublin's women footballers began the year without Mick Bohan at the helm.
After coming within a whisker of Cork in that year’s All-Ireland final, the Clontarf native returned for a second stint with the aim of bringing more success to a side that had just one Brendan Martin Cup to its name and was tasked with ending Cork’s stranglehold on the competition.
In his first season he landed ultimate honours. It took Meath’s incredible breakthrough in 2021 to deny the Dubs five-in-a-row.
A final title under his watch was added in 2023 before he took the decision late last year to step away.
His legacy in the capital, and indeed across the women’s game, is firmly cemented.
"He changed the face of Dublin ladies," says Carla Rowe, speaking at the launch of the 2025 Lidl National Football League.
"With Mick, when he came in, he came in from the men’s side (Dublin Under-21s skills coach and Clare coach under Colm Collins), but there was no step in between the men and the women.
"What the men had, that was the expectation for the ladies – in my eyes I think it was one of the first set-ups to have that, there was no reason for us not to have what our counterparts had. That was a huge thing. In terms of the game and personally what he has done for me as a player and off the field and everything, you couldn’t ask for anything more."
Derek Murray and former Dublin footballer Paul Casey are now at the helm having been promoted from Bohan’s backroom team. Casey has been involved for the last seven years so there is a form of continuity.
"It is so fantastic then to have the two lads who worked with Mick and picked up so much from him over the last couple of years," Rowe says. "Now to have them step in, bringing new energy and new players, it is the best of both worlds for us."
2024 was a year of what might have been for the Dubs. After missing out on a league final by a point, Galway ended their championship interest at the last-eight stage in a titanic tussle that went to extra-time.
The last time Dublin exited at the quarter-final stage, they licked their wounds only to return the following year (2023) to emerge as All-Ireland champions.
"Last year was probably the most hurt I have been and a lot of girls in the dressing-room are the same," the Balbriggan-based secondary school teacher says.
"You can go out and hold your head high if you perform, but we feel like we didn’t perform against Galway and that is what hurts the most. We are really, really hungry to get going."
The Clann Mhuire player has established herself as one of the most effective in the game and is itching to get going once again.
Talks over prospective double headers with the men may continue in the background, but Rowe is eyeing up the first assignment at Parnell Park on Saturday week when Mayo travel to the capital.
Rowe has seen first-hand what becoming one of the most recognisable faces in the game has had on kids, even those with only a passing interest in the sport.
The weight of being a role model doesn’t rest heavy on her shoulders.
"Some of them come in and they are saying, 'I saw you on TikTok,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not on TikTok, I don’t know how you saw me’, but they love that, they are going back to their other friends who aren’t in the school and saying, ‘Ms Rowe is our Gaelic coach,’ and that’s why they wanted to play Gaelic, even though some of them might have never played.
"It’s only those little moments that you realise that is actually a driving factor.
"I have loads of goals and ambitions for 2025. You have to focus on that but, but being a role model does come with responsibilities and we have to just take those one step at a time."
