Conor McKenna: From Gaelic Football to AFL and back again
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Conor McKenna grew up in Northern Ireland, playing Gaelic Football. He had never heard of AFL, but while still at school, he received a phone call from his brother saying that one of his teammates (an ex-AFL player from the Sydney Swans) would be giving Conor a call.
“He rang and invited me to a two-day trial in Dublin,” he explains. “I tested pretty well and I went to London for four days to do it all again. Then, I was lucky enough to be invited out to the talent combine in Melbourne. I went there for two weeks, and things went from there.
The process from hearing about AFL for the first time to being ready to play in the code was “pretty quick,” he says. “From not really hearing about the AFL until I was signed was probably nine months.”
Bigger change than expected
Although the codes are similar, Conor says the transition from Gaelic Football to AFL was a bigger change than he expected. “Gaelic's pretty full on,” he explains. “I was playing in the top ladder for three years, which was semi-professional. I would play four to five nights a week and on the weekend. I was ready for a change, which is why I came out here.
“It's pretty frustrating getting used to it,” he adds. “You come from being one of the top players in Gaelic Football, and here you're number 45 out of all the players, and you're bottom of the barrel. That was definitely a bit of a shock,” he admits.
“Going from being so good at a sport to not being able to kick a ball straight was very frustrating. It took me the first year to 18 months to get used to the bounce and shape of the football and the game plan. There are still certain rules I don't fully understand yet!”
In October 2014, Essendon secured Conor on a two-year contract, and he made his AFL debut against Richmond at the MCG in round 22, 2015.
Read more about Conor's story: www.youi.com.au/youi-news/sto...
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