In a career of many firsts, new Carlton skipper Abbie McKay’s trailblazing path has an unexpected twist.
She might have never become the competition’s first father-daughter captain if not for COVID-19.
Carlton premiership player Andrew McKay with daughters Abbie, centre, and Sophie. Credit: AFL Photos
Speaking soon after her appointment on Tuesday, the daughter of 1995 Blues premiership player Andrew told this masthead her career was at the crossroads in 2020 when Victoria was shunted into lockdown.
She had played just four games across two years – all of them in her first season – after being named the first father-daughter draftee in 2018.
“You just want to be involved, and you feel like you’re missing out ... and it’s just really upsetting,” McKay said of her rocky start.
“[But] it was a good driver to work a bit harder and a good motivation to pull my finger out and make sure I did something different the following year to pull myself away from the rest of the group.”
What she did differently was to begin training with her family, including her father, siblings Charlie and Sophie, and their four dogs.
“My brother and dad would come running with me, and you know we would do little bits and bobs to make sure I was the fittest that I kind of possibly could be,” McKay said.
“We put together little drills and Mum [Sam] would throw the ball in, and Charlie, Sophie and I would kick it to one another as if we’re in a little drill.
“My family is really sporty and active, and we have four dogs, so we would take them all down to the park with us [in Prahran], and they’d be a pain in the arse and try and catch the ball in their mouth and get in the way, but we just pretended they were defenders and had a lot of fun with it.”
Abbie McKay has been named the new captain of Carlton.Credit: AFL Photos
McKay, 24, returned to Ikon Park after the lockdown the fittest she had ever been.
“That just gave me the confidence that I could play the way I wanted to play,” she said.
“That first few months of COVID was definitely a blessing in disguise for me and my football career.”
McKay, who was first encouraged to play football by her mother, has now played 51 games for the Blues.
She was named co-vice captain last year and this week took over the top job, replacing veteran Kerryn Peterson, who has been placed on the club’s inactive list because she and husband Joel are expecting her first child.
McKay’s honour comes 22 years after her 244-game father led the Blues for 15 games in the absence of Brett Ratten in 2003.
“Obviously, Dad captained the club many years ago, and I feel like he’s probably taught me a lot of stuff about leadership, even without me knowing it,” McKay said.
“But I do feel like it’s something that comes naturally to me, and I feel like I just get bits and pieces off different people around me.
“I also think that missing out in those two years [in 2019 and 2020] made me understand the hardships of being a first or second-year player – it doesn’t even matter your age if you’re not getting selected – but I can really empathise with those people.
“I think it is something that makes me different from other leaders.”
Carlton AFLW captain Abbie McKay and coach Mathew Buck.
McKay said the family celebrated her appointment at Le Tonkin restaurant in High Street, Armadale.
“Dad just said, ‘Be yourself. You’ve gotten into that position by being yourself, that’s why they picked you, so just stay true to yourself’,” she said.
McKay will be joined on-field this season by 19-year-old sister Sophie, who was taken by the Blues at No.17 in the 2024 draft. McKay will wear her father’s No.5, and her sister will wear No.55.
“Soph and I are very different people, very different players,” McKay said.
“We know that, and we get along really well, and it’ll be great. I mean, I think she quite likes it. She feels like she can come to me for whatever anyway.”
McKay rang the bell at Ikon Park in 2018 alongside her father and sister to signify the first-ever AFLW game – a sellout between Carlton and Collingwood.
On Thursday, August 14 she will lead her team for the first time – again at Ikon Park when the Blues take on Collingwood.
“It was a surreal moment, something I’ll never forget, seeing all the girls running out,” she said.
“I didn’t even picture myself as an AFLW athlete at that point.”
There is one other field in which McKay would like to emulate her father – becoming a vet.
“That was the plan, but AFLW time commitments have grown since I first started,” she said before admitting she already had a bachelor of science and a bachelor of arts.
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