It might be almost eight years since she donned the colours of her native Derry in an All-Ireland final at Croke Park, but Annie Crozier remains hopeful of once again featuring on the biggest day in the women's football calendar.
Back on September 2017, Crozier scored a point from right corner-forward as the Oak Leaf County drew with provincial rivals Fermanagh in a junior football decider at GAA HQ.
The Ballymaguigan star also raised a white flag when Derry lost out to the Erne women in a replayed encounter held at St Tiernach’s Park, Clones a fortnight later and this is to date the most recent appearance by the county in an adult championship decider.
While there are a lot of new faces to the panel this year, captain Crozier is optimistic they can develop the right blend that is needed to seriously challenge for the West County Hotel Cup later this year.
"Obviously we’re using national league as that building process and getting to know each other as a team," she said.
"It (making the junior final in 2017) just shows what is possible, whenever you get a good squad of girls together and you’re all working towards one target.
"You see what Fermanagh have done since 2017. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be pushing on to achieve the same."
Although he had stepped away from the set-up by the time they made it to the All-Ireland junior final, Derry had begun the 2017 season with Crozier’s father Paul in charge of the team.
He would later return to the managerial post for the start of the following year – by which point Annie had opted to spend a gap year in Australia.
Paul Crozier was far from being the first member of the St Trea’s Ballymaguigan club to manage Derry at inter-county level as the late duo of Jim McKeever and Eamonn Coleman (an All-Ireland winning boss in 1993) were both in charge of the men’s team on more than one occasion.
Additionally, Paul’s brother (and Annie’s uncle) Paddy Crozier also enjoyed a stint as Derry senior men’s football manager. After leading the Oak Leaf to an All-Ireland senior football championship quarter-final in 2007, he went on to guide his county to a Division One league title a year later.
"We were Derry die-hards coming up through the years. Used to be going out to support him [Paddy]. We would have been only eight or nine at the time. I remember us all going as a family," she said.
After she eventually returned home from her journey to the southern hemisphere, Crozier opted to apply for an apprenticeship as an engineer with Heron Bros – a project development and construction company that operates across Ireland, the UK and Europe.
Currently a site engineer in Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, combining the early working hours and sizeable commute is a balancing act.
"I leave at six in the morning, finish work at 4.30 and it’s an hour to get home. It’s hard getting the perfect balance sometimes, but I know no different at this point. That’s the routine. It’s busy nights, long days, but you just get used to it."
This overseas sojourn saw her missing out on Derry’s Division 4 league clash with All-Ireland intermediate champions Leitrim, but was back in harness when the Ulster outfit took on Sligo last Sunday at Owenbeg.
Though there were only four points between the teams in the end, it meant a fourth successive defeat for Crozier’s side.
Tomorrow's clash with Wicklow in Owenbeg will be followed by games against Kilkenny (away) and Antrim (home) in the coming weeks and Crozier is confident that getting a win under their belts will help them to start moving steadily in the right direction ahead of their Ulster and All-Ireland campaigns.
"It would be nice to push on and get a few points on the board."
