Western Bulldogs get package deal in Irish starlet Katy Herron and 7yo son Joshua
She told herself it was never going to work. Living in Ireland and raising a seven-year-old boy, new Western Bulldog Katy Herron thought an AFLW dream was pie-in-the-sky stuff. But sometimes you make your own luck.
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Irish Gaelic footballer Katy Herron hit send on her email asking for a chance to play AFLW just after 11 on a Friday night — an hour before the deadline closed.
The fact that she lived half a world away — three hours north of Dublin — and had a seven-year-old son had been playing heavily on her mind.
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“It will never work,” she’d told herself as she sat at her Glenfin farm after finally committing to an application.
“I thought about it in my head, but given my situation, I kind of scrapped the idea and tried not to think about it, because realistically for me it was something I thought would never, ever happen.
“I was just dreaming.”
Herron had discovered AFLW via CrossCoders, a program run by Bulldogs defender Lauren Spark and Jason Hill which offers women across the world a chance to come here and play our footy.
“The date was coming close for their applications and I just emailed Jason the night of the closing date on a Friday night, I emailed him at about 11,” she said.
“I said, ‘listen, I have a seven year old child, it’s probably never going to work realistically’. “He just said, ‘you have nothing to lose, just send it through and if nothing comes of it, nobody needs to know any different’.”
Bulldogs list boss Mick Sandry liked the vision he saw of Herron and tonight she will play her second AFLW game for the Bulldogs against Melbourne.
Her parents, who also flew to Australia, will be sitting in the stand with son Joshua.
Herron had her son when she was just 22.
At the time she had been making a name for herself in Gaelic football Donegal with dreams of playing at Croke Park.
“It was a really tough time – there’s no point in pretending that everything was great,” Herron told the Herald Sun.
“Mam and dad were probably disappointed for the fact that they knew that I probably wanted to do all these things and that I had such an ability in sports.
“For them, it was probably more a disappointment for me. When I said it first to mum about coming here, she kind of thought it was so unrealistic and then she spoke to my sister and told her she would love to see me get the chance.
“They are probably very proud. They might not admit it all the time because obviously they were concerned about Joshua, but they love to see me get an opportunity given all the work they’ve seen me do and all the stuff I went through.”
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Moving to Melbourne took a lot of planning, and some extra packing — she brought all of Joshua’s schoolbooks so that she could homeschool him in-between her AFLW commitments.
“When I told him, he was like ‘how long are we going for?’. I have a sister in Sydney, so he knew all about Australia,” Herron said.
“I just plucked a number and said, ‘70 days’. He was like, ‘A 70-day holiday!’.
“When he knew he was missing school it was 10 times better.
“I thought the teaching was going to be such a battle with him, but he’s been brilliant.
“Being one-to-one, we can get so much covered in such little time, so once I tell him ‘everyone at home is in school for six hours a day and you only have to do two’, he thinks he’s flying.
“He’s ringing home and his wee cousin’s in his class, he said ‘what page are you on in the Irish book? I’ve finished mine’.
“We sent over a wee scrapbook called Joshua’s Adventure and he’s writing all his wee stories in it and all his trips we do.”
The plan is for Joshua to return to Ireland with her parents in three weeks so as not to miss too much schooling.
Her dad presented her with her jumper on Sunday, telling her teammates Herron would “always have their back”.
“It was the worst preparation for a match ever – it was so emotional,” Herron laughed.
Stunned by the crowds last week, Herron can’t wait to take to Whitten Oval tonight with a hefty crew back home tuning in at all hours to watch.
“At home, we’re playing at the highest standard and you’re juggling between work and home and training and the gym and Joshua,” she said.
“There’s so much going on in life, and here now just to get the chance to focus solely on training and spending time with him, it’s opened so many avenues to develop yourself as a player and see what limits you can reach. That’s something I’m trying to focus on.
“It’s lovely that my family has been able to come over and help me. I don’t know if I’ll ever learn all of the rules because there’s so many. But I’m looking to learn the game a wee bit better.”