Updated at 15.00
TO HAVE ONE of your favourite sports teams indicate their desire to make you part of their long-term plans is a dream come true for any young athlete. Having realistic aspirations with two — in different codes — is particularly rare.
To then politely decline such options and pursue a career in a different sport, on the other side of the world, gives you an indication of the self-belief, ability and appetite for a challenge that 18-year-old Conor Nash possesses.
It’s understandable seeing promising Gaelic footballers try their hand at professional sport in Australia, but when a club of Leinster’s status put an academy contract on the table there aren’t too many who say: ‘thanks, but no thanks’.
Nash is getting used to saying no to people. Colm O’Rourke spent months trying to convince him to join Simonstown Gaels’s senior panel last year before he eventually succumbed and helped them win a maiden county title from midfield.
There was no time for the Meath minors in 2016 either — rugby commitments taking priority in his final year at the grade — but a senior inter-county career looked well within his considerable grasp.
The former Leinster and Ireland U18 clubs star has been at AFL giants Hawthorn for six months, and he is already confident that flying the nest was the right decision, even if he does find himself tossing the Aussie Rules ball around the training ground in a throwback to his days as a rugby fullback.
There is certainly plenty to be positive about — he’s playing in a winning team, making obvious progress, and earning money for the first time in his life.
Most of his peers are clambering together weekly funds from part-time jobs that have little or no correlation to their professional ambitions. Nash is already getting paid for what he loves to do.
The former St Pat’s, Navan student had previously hoped to study medicine at third level but his focus has changed since deciding to make the move Down Under.
That is not to say he has turned a blind eye to academia; a part-time science degree in Melbourne is a valuable distraction from football and, most importantly, keeps his parents happy.
Homesickness
Homesickness, injuries and a lack of ability with the oval ball have halted the progress of many of Nash’s Irish predecessors in Oz, something which he is acutely aware of.
Having Derry native Conor Glass living with the same Melbourne host family, as well as training alongside him and playing together for the Box Hill Hawks — Hawthorn’s affiliated club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) — has helped him settle, while the duo came through pre-season fit and strong, handling whatever was thrown at them.
The jury is out on how well the pair will adapt to the game but by all accounts they have been impressing among the backs for Box Hill this season, helping the Hawks win their four opening VFL games ahead of tomorrow’s (3am start Irish time) tie against Richmond. Box Hill’s winning run has also been a welcome distraction from the sluggish start Hawthorn have made to their AFL campaign.
There was a memorable clip during this year’s The Toughest Trade TV show, as an awestruck Michael Murphy was shown all the bells and whistles at Clermont-Auvergne’s training facility.
The Donegal skipper’s gaping mouth said it all as he was shown a boot-room bigger than most clubhouse bars, a sun-kissed two-storey gym stretching as far as the eye could see, and enough blue and yellow training gear to convert a small town to Clermont for life.
Appropriately, the show soon switched back to a winter Gaelic football training session — with mandatory mix-and-match beanies — on a heavy pitch, in sweeping rain.
While initially overcome with boyhood excitement of Willy Wonka Golden Ticket proportions, Nash is now used to the idea of being a professional athlete and having all his needs catered for. He feels this is where he belongs.
“You probably do stargaze a small bit at the start and you just say: ‘look, this is where I am now and this is what I’m going to be doing,’” Nash tells The42 from Melbourne.
“The things that are put in place for us — absolutely everything is there. It opens up your eyes to the professional world.
“Everything is looked after. When we finish a game, we’re straight into our recovery which consists of another 40 minutes of stretching, a 10-minute massage, ice bath and then you go to a pool or the beach to do water-based recovery.”
Pre-season
Pre-season offers a chance for the Irish rookies to make a statement by showing off their athleticism on the track and in the gym, competing against fresh-faced Aussies who are also new to the demands of the AFL.
The 6ft 5in Nash is renowned for his physical attributes, while Glass is another who has speed and strength in abundance.
“What they liked about myself and Conor was whatever work they gave us we just did it.
Whether we were goosed at the end of training or not we just went through it. We did very well actually.
“We were among the standout performers at times but what they liked about us was we were resilient. We didn’t get injured. We did all the loads.
“Our loads for first-year players were up around 95%-plus. For all the other first-year players they drafted they were doing 70%, so we got through a lot of work.
“I think it is the longest pre-season of any sport in the world, and it needs to be. The matches are so long, they just go on for ages.”
The goalposts of AFL action may seem far away for international rookies so fresh off the plane but Kerry’s Mark O’Connor has proved at Geelong that if you’re good enough, you’ll be picked, even at the league’s bigger clubs.
It was only last week that Nash and Glass got the better of O’Connor, named one of Geelong’s best players in their VFL defeat to Box Hill.
O’Connor and Glass were playing their fourth games at this level, and Nash his third (a tight hamstring ruled him out two weeks ago).
Yet today O’Connor makes his AFL debut for the Cats, playing up the field from Laois’s Zach Tuohy and against Essendon’s Tyrone defender Conor McKenna.
Recruitment
Something Nash believes will stand to him and Glass is the lengthy recruitment process they went through after being scouted during schools Gaelic football matches for St Pat’s, Navan and St Pat’s, Maghera respectively.
Rather than going via the more common route of a Tadhg Kennelly combine, Hawthorn have been in touch with both players since 2014, allowing the duo to improve their oval-ball skills well in advance of making the move.
“It was easier for myself and Conor because Hawthorn looked at us and they first got in contact when we were 15,” reasons Nash.
We’ve been kicking the ball since 15 or 16. Hawthorn came over to Ireland a couple of times to do training camps with us and we went over to Australia three or four times prior to moving out. They’d do some testing and a lot of skills work, take footage and then they review that.
“It’s a lengthy process. When it started we were in two different groups, there were probably about four players they were looking at.
“As it goes on they whittle it down and then for the next year and a half or so they’re working towards offering you a contract to come over.
“It definitely gave us a head-start and a good, solid base to start on. You find yourself improving every week. It’s going very well and we’re happy with where we’re at.”
The recruitment process had been tiresome, and juggling so many sporting commitments was taking its toll, as was the pressure from all corners to make a decision on his future.
Deciding on a professional avenue is a mesmerising process for most sixth-year students but Nash had offers flying at him from all angles and that was months out from sitting his Leaving Cert last summer.
It was a stressful time, but once he made up his mind he was able to put all the noise to one side and focus his attention on specific goals.
“It was tough. I think it was the February of my Leaving Cert year, I came back from doing a stint out here (in Australia) after my mocks and I came back with an offer.
“I was also chatting to Leinster and they were interested in making an offer as well.
“I think the fact that it happened then and didn’t happen later towards the Leaving Cert was fine because I made the decision within two weeks of getting that offer.
I was chatting to Leinster and both camps, weighing up the pros and cons, and I just made the decision and that was that done.
“From then on it was easier in a sense. In fact it actually made me focus a bit more on the Leaving Cert in that I knew what way I was going.
“I knew I probably wouldn’t need to use the results right away. I’m doing uni now but there’s a different path of getting into it over here, it’s a bit easier.
“And that just made it a bit more comfortable that I didn’t need the stress of points or anything like that in my head which definitely made it easier and it helped me to do well.”
High
Nash was also able to leave Ireland on a high, as part of Simonstown’s successful Meath SFC venture last October, and he was happy he eventually gave in to O’Rourke, manager of the Gaels and his former teacher.
It was a fairytale ending in a way. Colm said it to me before the Leaving Cert to come out for the championship. He was nagging me all year and I was telling him: ‘I can’t go out, I can’t play senior.’
“Then eventually I said all right. He said to come out to training before the first round of the championship and then he put me in for the championship and I suppose from then I just got in with the group of lads.
“I’d known the lads a bit but to get in with them was great craic and we had a great run.
“At the start of the championship we drew the first one and lost the second and you wouldn’t have been seeing a county title coming out of us at all.
“But then we all came together at the right time and it was really special to be part of winning the first county title for the club.”
However, two weeks later Nash could only play the final few minutes as the Meath champions bowed out to Offaly kingpins Rhode by three points. With his flight to Australia just a few days later, the risk of injury was too great.
I suppose then I was disappointed I couldn’t play more of a role in the Rhode game. It was just too close to jetting off to here.
“If I had gotten an injury then, not only would I have got a bit of a bollocking when I got out here, it would have set me back for the pre-season.”
Nash learned long ago that he can’t please everyone, and as he attempts to build a professional career for himself on the other side of the world, that knowledge should stand him in good stead.
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Either way he represented us well and we’re proud of him !
I’m sick of all this losing. Why bother sending people over and wasting money?
O ya cuz everyones losing, have you not seen Annalise murphys unbelievable performances in her laser radial that means she’s in 1st place at the moment. But no your right y do we bother sending them! Ugh
This guy Rocco is just a miserable troll poking for reactions on all the Olympic threads. What a sad individual he must be.
Maybe we should send over the Kerry footballers Rocco?
Good idea Alan. We need winners.
I’m proud that Scott Evans was good enough to take on the worlds best and so proud he is so humble in his defeat. He is an Irish person to be looked up to.