Crows Irish rookie Ailish Considine dropped one week, kicks two vital goals the next
She’s the first Irish Gaelic footballer to pull on the Crows tricolour guernsey, and she’s learning fast that a week is a long time in Australian football.
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No one likes being dropped but an enforced week off for Crows Irish rookie Ailish Considine a fortnight ago gave her the headspace to bring back her passion.
The Gaelic footballer was dropped for Adelaide’s round six clash against GWS after picking up a mere two disposals the week before, only to be reselected for round seven and then kicking the opening two goals of the game.
They were big goals too — her first in AFLW coming at the nine-minute mark of the opening term of the round seven match against Melbourne and her second three minutes later.
Considine said being dropped gave her an extra week not only for her body to heal after cracking her ribs in round three, but to clear some headspace too.
“I tried to do things outside of football, for instance popping into the Fringe during the day and having a walk around and go into the city and walk around the shops, not even doing anything in particular,” she said.
“Just taking my mind off things that had anything to do with football, but obviously still doing the main things like my gym sessions and everything in between.
“The big thing was taking my mind off it for a bit.
“I guess I probably did need a bit of a break from it, everything I was doing was revolving around football and I was starting to put a lot of pressure on myself to perform better and do better and make more of an impact on games.”
The Irish recruit — the first international player to be selected by the Crows — said the break made her more hungry to work her way back into the side’s best 21.
“It kind of made me more hungry for it and helped me take a step back and realise I needed to stop putting pressure on myself and relax a bit more and go out there and play with the freedom that I had for the first couple of games,” she said.
“I went out there and enjoyed every single minute of being out there and getting to play.”
In her return game, she picked up seven disposals and took two marks.
But it was her two-goal haul that was an integral part of the Crows 10-goal dismantling of the Demons, the win earning them top spot in Conference A and a home preliminary final against Geelong on Sunday.
The 26-year-old said she was looking forward to playing at Adelaide Oval, even though she’s yet to lay eyes on the stadium.
“The only comparison I have is Croke Park (in Dublin) that seats about 85,000 — I’ve had the privilege of playing there once, so to get back to a big stadium and an iconic stadium like Adelaide Oval is, it’s just: ‘Wow’,” she said.
“As a child, my dream was to play in Croke Park as a Gaelic footballer, so I can imagine for the girls here who know more about the history of Adelaide Oval, it must be an absolute dream and to be playing at the best stadiums as a female athlete, is exactly where you want to be.”
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