Danielle Morrissey may not turn 19 until next month, but she is already in her third season with a Kilkenny squad that is bidding for a fourth consecutive Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League Division 1 title, against Galway, in Croke Park tomorrow (throw-in 12pm noon).

It was impossible to ignore the Conahy Shamrocks prodigy. She soared through the ranks, with Ann Downey issuing an invite to their in-house games, prior to the All-Ireland final in 2016.

Morrissey clearly created a major impact and, within a few months, the precocious scoring machine was a first-team regular. Not alone that, she was entrusted with free-taking and the fifth-year pupil was on the scoresheet as Kilkenny defeated Cork in the league final at the Gaelic Grounds. It made for a surreal six months.

“In 2016, I was sitting in the stand, watching the girls win the All-Ireland,” she recalled. “Then, in 2017, to be up there with them and feeling the defeat with them, it was surreal. It is something you dream of. Obviously, you want to win, but the failure will make you stronger, in the end.

“There are no cliques. Everyone gets on with everyone. Everyone is friends there. There wouldn’t be groups here and there. You go in to train and you train hard, and you go home happy. I am finding my feet this year, a bit more.”

The latter line is telling. Though she would end 2017 scoring 3-11 of 4-18, as Conahy won the county junior title, Morrissey suffered a little from the dreaded second-season syndrome last year, when she had the Leaving Cert to contend with, too. Now, though the competition for places is fiercer than ever, she feels more comfortable within the group.

“You feel like you have more of a place. It’s the third year in there now and I need to start standing up. It takes time to get up to the standard of what the girls are used to. You are coming in and you don’t want to let anyone down with your touch. You want to be as quick and as fast as anyone.” Losing a second All-Ireland final in 12 months, by a point last September, was a bitter pill to swallow.

“It took longer than the year before to get over. It is two years in a row losing by a point. This and that and the other could have gone right. It’s parked now and it’s a new year. All we can do is go forward. We can’t change things. This year, hopefully, we can do one better.”

They have certainly impressed this spring. While still attempting to be defensively robust, the deployment of Anne Dalton higher up the pitch is a noticeable change in approach. Morrissey’s own positioning can vary. “I do be slipping in and out of corner-forward to the wing. We have some freedom in there this year. The message is to go out and hurl and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Sunday is just another day out, in our eyes. Hopefully, we can get the win. If we do, it will be the cherry on top of the cake, with the four in a row.”