From St Joseph’s training to the grand final, how his junior club helped Paddy McCartin bounce back

Less than two years ago, Paddy McCartin contacted his junior club asking to join pre-season and have a kick. It was an early step on a road that has led him to the AFL grand final.

Looking back now, Paul Carson thinks he is an “idiot” for sending the message to Paddy McCartin.

The former St Joseph’s coach reached out to the former AFL No.1 draft pick McCartin, with a vision of the talented big man running out of the goalsquare in the GFL.

St Joseph's training. Sr Kilda's Paddy McCartin. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

Seemingly in the football wilderness then in late-2020, having been delisted by St Kilda, McCartin didn’t quite commit to playing with his junior side but instead trained for a few weeks of pre-season at Drew Reserve.

McCartin was then weighing up whether to move to Sydney and join his brother Tom at the Swans, playing in the club’s VFL side.

St Joseph's under-12 photo featuring Tom McCartin (with vertical stripe), Tom Atkins (behind poking his tongue out) and Paddy McCartin (sixth from the right).

Not quite two years later, he will line up in defence alongside Tom in Saturday’s grand final.

“I look like an idiot now but I did reach out to him a couple of years ago to tell him he was always welcome at Joeys, thinking we were an outside chance of having him run out of the goalsquare for us,” Carson recalled.

“But thank god he is not.

“That might have been the worst thing he could have done.

“He took a bit of a risk and moved to Sydney and in hindsight, it is an amazing move and it’s a fantastic story.”

Sam Walsh had a run with Joeys. picture: Glenn Ferguson

It was a pre-season packed with stars at Joeys in the height of summer in December 2020, with the McCartin brothers joined at their old club by Carlton ace Sam Walsh.

Paddy McCartin had been a regular behind the fence at home St Joseph’s GFL games, and Carson welcomed him into pre-season with open arms.

A revelation as an intercept-marking defender this AFL season, the former full-forward showed his first signs as a backman with St Joseph’s.

“I knew early days when he went up to Sydney last year they were always going to play him as a defender,” Carson said.

“When he was with us, he went straight back and trained with the defence and he was awesome. He read the footy like a book.”

McCartin is always welcome at St Josephs. picture: Glenn Ferguson

Tom McCartin and Paddy McCartin

St Joseph’s president Todd Devine remembers McCartin coming down to have a kick and even some within the club thought he might remain at a local level as he fought back from constant concussion issues.

“There were people at that stage when he was training with us who probably thought it was all over and it wasn’t going to happen,” Devine said.

“He stuck to his guns, worked his butt off and it was a bit like that saying ‘how do you eat and elephant? One bite at a time.’

“He made sure he did the work, that his injuries were right and then it was just progression, progression, progression.”

The Joeys fraternity has its loyalties slightly split heading into the grand final, with the McCartin brothers facing another favourite son, Geelong midfielder Tom Atkins.

Through laughter, Devine claimed credit for Paddy’s second life as a defender given he played him at centre half-back when he coached the young star at under-14 level.

The president said St Joseph’s was proud to have played a small part on McCartin’s bounce-back to the AFL but the work was all done by the Swan himself.

“We know what sort of person he is and we were happy to do whatever and to be honest it was as much of a benefit for our club as it was for him, we got as much out of (training) as Paddy did,” Devine said.

“We aren’t taking any credit for this, don’t get me wrong, but we wanted to make sure Paddy took his first steps at training and from there he moved on to bigger and better things and it has all jut fallen into place perfectly.”

Originally published as From St Joseph’s training to the grand final, how his junior club helped Paddy McCartin bounce back