Back in 2012, when Mayo's Paul Gallagher and Amy Corrigan saw off the young 'Rebelettes', Catriona Casey and Aishling O'Keeffe, in the third game of the Ladies Senior Softball Doubles final, few would have predicted what was coming.
The Mayo ladies had just retained their crown, having seen off Kerry's Ashley Prendiville and Maria Daly in the final the year before, but the Cork duo were the coming superpower.
The following year, Casey and O'Keeffe beat the holders 21-8, 21-14 in the final and they have not been beaten since. In fact, the Cork ladies have not dropped a set in any of their final victories either, beating Prendiville and Daly, Martina McMahon and Cathy Foley, McMahon and Katie McCarthy and, in the last two finals, Ciara Mahon and Aoife Holden.
Where handball conversations turn to the greatest doubles teams of all time and the names of Brady and Finnegan, Sheridan and Carroll and so on come up, there is no doubt that Casey and O'Keeffe are also worthy of consideration given their dominance in both 60x30 and 40x20 grades.
Having won the Minor Doubles together twice (2010 and 2011), they soon gate-crashed the senior party and have excelled ever since.
They showed that they are playing as well as ever when they beat Gallagher and Corrigan 21-11, 21-7 in their last outing and they will go into tomorrow's MyClubShop.ie All-Ireland Senior Doubles final at Croke Park as warm favourites to win their seventh title in succession.
Opposing them, however, are the side they beat in the last two deciders, the improving, well-balanced Kilkenny partnership of Mahon and Holden.
They have come up through the ranks and have now emerged as the main pretenders to the Cork ladies' throne. Interestingly, they also both have All-Ireland Minor Doubles medals, Mahon winning hers with Mary Phelan in 2012 and Holden teaming up with Ailish O'Shea to emerge victorious four years later.
Both players went on to win the Intermediate Singles (Mahon in 2014, Holden in 2017) and have performed with distinction in the Senior Doubles grade since pairing up.
In their first final, the Noresiders were beaten 21-8, 21-9 by Cork; last year, the outcome was the same but the scoreline – 21-4, 21-15 – suggested that they may be closing the gap slightly.
Twelve months on and there are signs that Kilkenny are ready for a major assault on the title. Their 21-15, 21-16 victory over Kildare's Leah Doyle and Mollie Dagg – one of the strongest minor teams to emerge in many years in the big court – was eyecatching and proved that the Leinster side are performing to the peak of their abilities.
And while Casey's one-sided win over Mahon in the recent Senior Singles championship indicates that a gap still remains, doubles is a different game. Roared on by what is sure to be a large travelling Kilkenny support, the underdogs will be very hopeful of biting back.
That said, Casey and O'Keeffe are so experienced and competent in all facets of the game that it would take a lot to knock them off their stride. An intriguing decider awaits; either Kilkenny or Cork are guaranteed to make history in the last ladies final to be played at Ceannáras. It's all to play for.