Kilkenny All-Ireland winning captain Darragh Joyce will make his AFL debut this Sunday after he was named in the St Kilda side to face the Melbourne Demons at the MCG.
Joyce captained the Cats to an All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship win over Limerick in 2014 but left a promising hurling future behind him to pursue a career in the AFL with St Kilda.
The 20-year-old joined the Saints as a Category B International Rookie ahead of the 2017 AFL season and has been listed as emergency cover on two occasions already this season.
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St Kilda head coach Alan Richardson informed Joyce that he would be starting off the bench for the Saints round 15 clash with the Melbourne Demons with the 21-year-old coming into the squad for the omitted Logan Austin.
Joyce said that the journey from Kilkenny to St Kilda has been big for him and that his mother will be flying out to Melbourne to watch his debut.
“I’ve been doing a lot of work with Spud (Frawley) on bodywork to put me in a good position to either intercept or spoil it, so just doing the basics week in, week out, and a lot of kicking with Lindsay (Gilbee) as well, so it’s all paying off,” Joyce told saints.com.au.
“It’s been a big journey for me, so to get here, there’s been a lot of hard work over the last year, but hopefully it’s the first of many.
"Me Mam’s on the way over now, so she’ll be here in less than 24 hours, which is great.”
Darragh Joyce becomes just the third Irish-born player to represent St Kilda in VFL/AFL history, following Dermot McNicholl (3 games, 1990) and Colm Begley (1 game, 2009).
