Who needs an agent? Instagram brought this Bulldogs debutant to Australia, and there’s more coming

Perhaps, these days it shouldn’t be entirely surprising that an Instagram message was the catalyst for Irish Gaelic footballer Aisling McCarthy to enter the AFLW.

Not that it took away from 22-year-old McCarthy’s shock, and bemusement, when she received a message from Western Bulldogs player and head of the CrossCoders program, Lauren Spark, inviting her to a week-long camp in Melbourne last September.

The CrossCoders concept is straight out of the American college sport playbook: McCarthy was one of 18 invitees from six countries including the US, Fiji and her native Ireland who participated in intensive athletic and footy-specific testing as AFLW clubs watched on.

Aisling McCarthy: Debuting for the Western Bulldogs on Saturday.Credit:Eddie Jim

Rigorous, but worthwhile, as both The Bulldogs and McCarthy look to reap the benefits when the small forward makes her debut against Geelong at Whitten Oval on Saturday night.

It will be fine outcome for McCarthy, whose already rocky road from her home town of Cahir, in the county of Tipperary, to Melbourne became bumpier after CrossCoders week.

"I didn't get picked up as a rookie, so I entered into the draft. For about a month it was pretty unknown where my fate would lie," she explains.

Draft night in October took on greater meaning for McCarthy as she stayed up until 3am Irish time to watch her fate be revealed.

"I knew my name was in and I'd had a few discussions with clubs [including the Demons and North Melbourne]. But I didn't know if anyone was going to pick me up, let alone who, so I said I'd just watch it … it was a bit of a shock when my name got called out to head with pick 23 to the Bulldogs," she says.

"Then I couldn't sleep the entire night, because I knew I was about to move to the other side of the world. It was a great feeling."

So began the challenge not only of moving a 24-hour flight from home, but acclimatising to a new sport, in a champion team that will unfurl their premiership flag prior to Saturday's game.

"I knew coming into the team that they were reigning champions, and they probably'd have high expectations. So I was obviously nervous that I wouldn't be up to their standards, with it being a new sport. But there's been no real talk that they won it last year," says McCarthy.

Having been left out of her side's one-point victory against Adelaide last week, the clearly inquisitive McCarthy compensated with a self-concocted "feast of football".

"I travelled to Adelaide, and obviously that was great to see first-hand, then I played my own practice game on Sunday," she says.

"I was very tired Sunday, so I sat on the couch all day watching football on repeat, basically. It was great to see – obviously there were a few great games – and I’m picking up new rules each time I watch."

Aisling McCarthy, from Tipperary to the Western Oval.Credit:Eddie Jim

She's also been gifted an AFL  rule book, property of netball-convert Libby Birch in season one, to avoid similar gaffes to her Irish countrywoman Sarah Rowe's play-on after the ball hit the post in a practice match.

McCarthy lived with her initial contact Spark, who was playing Aussie rules in London before joining the Bulldogs in 2017, for her first two weeks in the country before she and 19-year-old teammate Kate Bartlett moved in with a Bulldogs-supporting homestay in the western suburbs.

Her own family and friends back in Ireland will be starting their Saturday by watching McCarthy's debut, or at least attempting to.

"I know a few of them tried to watch the Adelaide game last week and it wouldn’t work. So we’re just trying to find a way to stream it," says McCarthy, who will turn 23 the day after her team's round four match against the Lions.

A direct AFLW stream to Ireland wouldn't be Gillon McLachlan and the AFL's worst move: McCarthy is one of five Irish players in the league – Yvonne Bonner and Ailish Considine were picked up from the CrossCoders camp by Greater Western Sydney and Adelaide respectively– and one suspects the floodgates are about to open.

The Gaelic football season starts up in April, allowing each import, including McCarthy, to seamlessly return home post-AFLW.

And together with the CrossCoders initiative, increased media attention in Ireland means female Gaelic footballers will undoubtedly be aware that the player base is soon to increase dramatically with the addition of four more teams next season.

In the meantime, McCarthy will have to find a substitute to her usual pre-game ritual of swimming in the freezing waters of the aptly-named St Patrick's well in her home town.

Granted, the waters of nearby Williamstown beach aren't Irish winter cold, but they should be sufficiently bracing.

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