Veteran looks to exit in a blaze of glory
For 16 years Hughes has been donning the blue and gold. Half her life. Even in a sport where players are routinely promoted to their senior county teams whilst still in their mid-teens, it is a singular achievement.
The finishing line is in sight now, she insists. Sunday's All-Ireland final against old sparring partners Cork may be the stage on which she bows out of the game she has graced for so long.
"Let's just say I'm near the end. There's a lot of mileage there now and if I can see this one out I'll be pretty happy."
Indeed she should be. When Hughes first hooked up with the Tipp squad the summit of their ambitions was to break the straightjacket of the junior ranks for the bright lights of the intermediate grade.
They came close that first season in 1990, losing the final before correcting the result a year later by claiming the title. It took another five years to navigate their way through to the senior ranks where, within two years, they had won the county's first All-Ireland title at the sport's most rarefied level.
Since then, the garlands have hardly stopped coming. Tipp enters the contest with six of the last seven All-Ireland titles tucked under their belts, defeat to Cork in the 2002 final the only championship hiccup in all that time.
The Rebel county has always been their barometer. The sides have met in the last four deciders and it was Cork who were undisputed ladies of the manor before Tipp broke their hegemony under Michael Cleary's guidance at the turn of the millennium.
When Tipp first dipped their toes into the senior grade Cork inflicted some crippling defeats, so they have been the focus of both Hughes' best and worst memories down the years. Ask her to name a particular favourite and the reply is instantaneous.
"The semi-final against them in 2001 when it went to a replay in Limerick. We were gone basically. They got a goal late on and it looked like curtains for Tipp but we got a goal and a couple of points to win it.
"We'd won our first All-Ireland in 1999 but we hadn't had to beat Cork that year. In 2000 we beat them in the final, but even then we still had the feeling that Cork were the big team. We felt we had to beat them twice to prove it wasn't a one-off so beating them the second time was important."
After a shaky league campaign, Tipp don't carry the burden of being overwhelming favourites into this decider as they have in previous years.
What is the same, even after all the years, is the pre-match tension, the almost unbearable wait for the ball to be thrown in on Sunday afternoon.
"The week before you'll always have those doubts. Are you fit enough? Is your touch okay? It's been a longer run into it this year with four weeks between the last two games so that adds to it too. You just can't wait for the Sunday to come around, really. Same as every year."
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