Blaithin Bogue reveals challenges AFLW’s rising Irish cohort faces as Roo prepares for grand final after All Australian season
Blaithin Bogue enjoyed a breakout All-Australian season, but it hasn’t been without its challenges. The Irish Roo opens up about homesickness, footy, and going from a one-street town to the AFLW’s biggest stage.
Blaithin Bogue sat in Melbourne and wondered what on earth she had done.
She’d left her “one-street” village in Northern Ireland on the eve of the 2024 AFL Women’s season bound for Arden Street Oval.
But as the Kangaroos embarked on the beginning of their history-making winning streak, getting a game was the furtherest thing from her mind.
Signed in February 2024, the club permitted Bogue to remain in Northern Ireland to finish her pharmacy degree and, that August, play in Fermanagh county’s victorious side in the TG4 All-Ireland Junior Ladies Football final at the famous Croke Park in Dublin.
Within weeks, she was in Australia as the AFLW season got underway – an unfamiliar game, in an unfamiliar country and an unfamiliar experience as she sat on the sidelines for that entire 2024 season.
“It was tough in those times. I was out here and I was probably questioning, ‘Did I do the right thing?’,” Bogue, 25, told Code Sports this week.
“A lot of us that come out here have a lot of Irish pride, so when you think that you’re not making it at something, I’m not going to say it’s embarrassment but you’re coming home and you’re afraid that people are going to think that you haven’t made it out here. It’s hard to explain to people that I’m training with the best team and that it’s a hard team to crack into, but it probably make me work a bit harder this year.
“I just thought that I came out on a two-year contract and I’d make the most of it and there was no point going home with any regrets.
“Obviously North are an unbelievable team, so it was very hard to kick into a team like that (in my first season).
“A lot of Irish coming out, they do break into the team (straight away), but I didn’t realise how intricate the sport was and how hard it was with the different setups and the running patterns.”
Most Irish players are also unable to work while in Australia due to visa restrictions.
Things weren’t easy.
She returned home that Irish winter and spent hours kicking a Sherrin into a trailer in the driveway of her family home while she also played Gaelic for Fermanagh.
Varying distances and angles tested her again and again, with coach Darren Crocker having been persistent that skill work – particularly kicking and her ball drop – would be key.
But an early arrival back Australia for this pre-season wasn’t planned for Bogue, who continues to combine her AFLW career with Gaelic football back home, which last season meant returning to Ireland, saying g’day to her family and going straight to training.
But a shoulder dislocation in April ruled her out of her traditional sport, meaning she was on hand at Arden Street sooner than planned for a tilt at her second year as a Kangaroo.
Her older brother Tiernan, 27, sent her off with some advice, to make the most of her opportunity.
It paid off, with an All-Australian blazer now hanging in her cupboard in just her second season. The pacy forward – who kept star tall Emma King out of the Roos’ side in part of this season – named in the team on Monday night alongside teammates Jasmine Garner, Ash Riddell and Tahlia Randall.
“I was very upset leaving because I’m a big homebird, and my brother said when I was leaving to make the most of it, so I did and I’m a very big believer that everything happens for a reason,” she said.
“As much as I was annoyed about the shoulder, I thought there had to be some reason as to why I was coming out a lot earlier than expected.
“I sat on the sidelines and learned my role, and had an awful lot of help with (Emma) Kearney and (Kate) Shierlaw, who did a lot of extra vision with me.
“They don’t want any thanks for it, but they were great. I had a lot of work put into it, but it’s sure paid off right now, I suppose.”
Tiernan, a doctor, is set to spend a year in Sydney soon, while sister Cadhla could yet join her in AFLW having played together for Fermanagh.
But it’s her parents Caroline and Kevin who are “getting more clout than I am” around town in Tempo, where Bogue hails from.
A village that sits at the foot of Brougher Mountain in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, the last census had Tempo’s population at just more than 450 people.
It’s safe to say all the townspeople know Bogue and the tale of the Roos, with her sister Rois-Eireann – “we all have very Irish names”, Bogue laughs – often donning her scarf and player badge in town.
“They came out in September time because I got very homesick at a stage and was crying down the phone,” Bogue said.
“They came out, so now it’s my own fault that they can’t come out for the grand final because they already came out a couple of months ago. I did say to them, though, that it’s probably the best thing because I wouldn’t have time for them around the grand final because there’s so much going on.
“There’s one street (in Tempo). It’ll be at 8.45am for them. My family and cousins and aunty and stuff will probably come to my house (to watch), but then my brother texted me and said that the club are talking about doing a watch party. So I’m a bit nervous about that.
“A lot of them have heard about AFL and international rules when the men were doing it years ago, but they wouldn’t have been as invested as they are now.
“It’s just mad. I just think it’s crazy that everyone’s so invested in wanting to watch on.
“I sent some jerseys and scarves home, so the family will definitely be kitted out.”
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