With not so much as a ball being kicked in Ireland, the AFLW season has taken centre stage.
In the faraway hills Down Under, there are 14 Irish women lighting up the Australian league and for idle Irish eyes, TG4 is the channel and their coverage is the tonic.
The marks, the stoppages and the quarters all take getting used to but when there’s a Tipp woman or a Mayo woman or a Cavan woman in the middle of it all, you put up with the confusion for the connection.
Next thing you find yourself shouting on a Collingwood or a Brisbane or the West Coast Eagles and isn’t that what sport is all about.
One Tipperary woman making her mark is Aisling McCarthy, who in her third year in the league has become one of the game’s most influential performers. In Round One, she was her side’s player of the match and in round two, she kicked her first goal. The West Coast Eagles have lost those opening games but the wins will soon come for McCarthy and Mayo’s Kelly sisters.
“lt’s been a bit of a disappointing start, but you do take a lot of learnings from a loss especially when we were up against two of the best teams in the league. I think our endeavour, our fight and our attitude in those games has been good. It is nice to chip in with a goal too but the most important thing is the team and you want to win, so we’ll be working on that for the next day.”
A rookie team only formed in 2019, the West Coast Eagles are the new kids on the block but McCarthy likes their idea and is devoted to the project. Not just a football club, they look out for their players off the field too with the Cahir woman swayed by the chance to develop her physiotherapy career.
“Our Visas here, we can’t work outside of playing football, our only employment is to play AFLW – which is a good thing in terms of focus and so on – but you’re not going to be a footballer all your life. The last two years, I had to park my physio career when I came out here but West Coast have a clinic attached to the club, so I’m able to shadow work there and see patients and athletes being assessed and so on. It keeps my skills fresh and helps me learn some new things here too.
“I think it’s really important that you do develop things away from football because if you get injured or just take the virus there taking football away from us – you need something outside of that – so I suppose that is something I learned in the last 12 months that you can’t have all your focus just on sport. That’s something the club are helping with which is great.”
'Rowe and Sheridan make the magic happen.'🔥
Déan cinnte a bheith linn anocht do bhuaicphointí #AFLW na deireadh seachtaine
⏰20:00 ar @TG4TV @AFLIrelandWomen @gympluscoffee @SarsRowe @AishlingSherdo @Mayo_LGFA @CavanLGFA https://t.co/OOqJvzsVSJ
— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) February 8, 2021
Homesickness is not a worry in Perth, where the three Irish teammates share an apartment and McCarthy says the camaraderie between the 14 ladies footballers keeps them all going.
“We all keep in contact with each other and you’d always keep an eye on the games when there’s an Irish girl playing. It’s nice to have that bit of camaraderie because you never feel too far away from home. We all come from the same background too and have a similar mindset so you can discuss the game from that point of view which is great too.”
From her ladies football exploits, Tipperary folk will know McCarthy as the all-action midfielder with a killer pass and the eye for a score and even in a different game, some things never change.
“You’d have a few random bruises the next day that you wouldn’t even know where they’d come from! It’s a little bit different from ladies football in terms of the physicality, you might wake up a little bit sorer but the fitness is similar enough to Gaelic.”
The lifestyle is the main change.
“The major difference is you have so much time. At home, you could be working 9-5 and rushing off to training after dinner. Over here, you have all the time in the world to do your training, get your gymming in, a massage or an ice-bath. You might be in the club for five hours but you’ve ticked all your boxes and you get it all done. At home, you could be scrambling because you just might not have the time. The training is basically the same though and that’s a great sign for ladies football and the GAA in general. There are definitely little nuggets you can bring home, whether it’s improving on your diet, or working with a psychologist, they’re definitely things that can help when I go back playing with Tipperary.”
“The first year when I came home, it did take a while to transition back to Gaelic football,” she continues, “I probably thought I would be better than I was before, and others were probably thinking that I would be too…but I kind of had to take a step back and realise I hadn’t played for six months. The ball is completely different, in the AFL, you have to completely kick through the ball. So when I came back, I was kicking it too far or I wasn’t getting the passes and shooting right.”
Lucky you never lose it. To still be able to play championship for Tipp was a huge factor in McCarthy’s decision to come over and while intent to live in the now, she does wonder whether the plan to increase the number of games in the season will eventually slow down the Irish invasion.
“Being able to come back to play championship is amazing. That’s a huge factor in the decision making process in coming down here, that you will still be able to play for your county. At the moment, we have the best of both worlds, but the season over here is going to extend by a match or two each year which is obviously going to eat into the time that you would be training with your county. So at some stage in the next few years, there is going to come a point when you’re going to have to potentially pick between coming to Australia and staying at home and committing to your county. So that will impact on the Irish girls a bit more.”
But for now, it’s all about getting a win on the board, and making the most of this wonderful opportunity.
“We’re lucky enough out here, it’s probably one of the best place in the world to be at the moment. Life is pretty normal here. Once we’re not in the club, we have a lot of time to rest and recover really and enjoy the beaches over here and things like that, so it’s great.”
