Mayo football legend Cora Staunton has committed to a 23rd season of inter-county football. After four All-Ireland titles, ten All Stars and five All-Ireland club titles, the Carnacon woman's love for the game is clearly still as strong as ever.
Staunton wasn't too sure where she stood when talking to us on the 'Hard Shoulder' podcast in September - indicating that it would very much be a case of 'wait and see' after her club campaign - but Mayo fans will be delighted that the player who once scored 9-12 in a club match will be on board Frank Browne's panel for next season.
Browne, talking to Jackie Cahill of the Irish Examiner, said that it was "brilliant for the panel" that Staunton had committed - confirming that she had indeed been added to the Mayo team's Whatsapp group (a key element of any GAA set-up now, it would seem).
And Browne paid suitable tribute to Staunton, who must surely go down as one of Ireland's greatest sportspeople:
She’s one of the only female sports stars in the country that you’d know by her first name, she’s up there with the likes of Katie Taylor and Sonia O’Sullivan as one of the great athletes of our time. But Cora is such a humble person, so focused on her own game and sometimes, she doesn’t realise how good she is.
Going into 2017, it's good to know that we'll be seeing more of this:
