THIS time last year, young Irishman Chris McKaigue didn’t know a great deal about AFL football.

He had watched the highlights of games, knew some of the rules, and knew that some of his Irish counterparts had ventured to Australia to play the game - but little did he think he’d be next.

It hasn’t been easy, and he’s made many sacrifices along the way, but all the hard work is starting to pay off for the Sydney Swans rookie.  

“If this time last year someone had said to me ‘you’ll be playing AFL’, I probably wouldn’t have thought anything of it,'' McKaigue said.

"I’m happy to be where I’m at but there are a lot of sacrifices along with it too. But I’m happy with where I am at so that’s the main thing.

“At first I wasn’t too keen, because of how far it was away and I was playing really good football back at home. Everything was happening pretty quickly but I talked to a few guys and they reckoned to give it a go and to be honest, I’ve been pretty happy I did give it a go. It’s been pretty positive so far.”

McKaigue has been a consistent contributor for the Swans reserves side in the AFL Canberra competition this season, and to think that nine months ago he had never kicked a Sherrin, he is progressing in leaps and bounds.

“I'm starting to play AFL with the same amount of confidence that I was playing Gaelic Football with. I think that’s the most important thing, to get the confidence with the oval ball and the different rules.”

Life changed dramatically for McKaigue after being identified by Swans recruitment ronsultant Ric Barham and manager, football development, Stuart Maxfield, last year.

Having debuted at 18, McKaigue left a promising Gaelic Football career behind, and made the big move to Sydney, picked at number 63 in the 2010 rookie draft.

McKaigue came over to Australia with some knowledge of the rules, but understandably found it difficult to transfer his Gaelic Football skills into AFL skills.

“Even after Christmas it was pretty tough, just being away from home and everything was different. There was a million things going through my head, and the pre-season was really tough.

“Then we went into the skills and the drills. I got pretty frustrated because everything was so foreign to me. I wanted things to happen as quickly as possible and it wasn’t going to happen that quickly.

“I just had to get my head around it. But I’ve put a lot of work in, I try to do as many extras as I can and I’m starting to feel really comfortable so hopefully I can set myself up for a big year next year,” he said.

McKaigue is being groomed as a defender and has already this season has shown glimpses of what he is capable of.

He admits he started a long way behind the rest of the playing group when he arrived and is doing everything possible to catch up quickly. While there are definite disadvantages that come with learning a new sport at a professional level, McKaigue is also reaping the benefits of learning from the best. 

 “At least when you learn the game from scratch you don’t learn any bad habits so that’s probably the most pleasing part of it.

“My first year was always going to be learning but I’m glad I’m starting to play really well. Hopefully I can keep playing well and next year come back in the pre-season really confident and push for a senior spot,” he said.

Another defender who has helped him along the way is mentor and fellow Irishman Tadhg Kennelly. While there are many similarities between the two, McKaigue knows that in order to be an AFL success like Kennelly has proved to be, he is going to have continue working hard. 

 “He’s always there if I need him and I spend a lot of time with him but at the end of the day Tadhg’s not going to make me an AFL player. I’m aware that what I am going to do is going to make me an AFL player.

"I’m just going to use his advice and guidance and do as much work as I can to try to make a career for myself,” he said.

Now that McKaigue has half of season of football behind him, he is starting to become more comfortable on the field and is growing in confidence. He says that the coaches have been very patient with him, and are pleased with what they have seen so far. 

“The coaches don’t want to pressure me, they know how tough it is but at the same time I want to try and reward the Club for taking me over and I want to try to play senior football next year without a doubt so I’ve just got to keep playing well

“The last month and a half in particular, (the coaches) have said that I’ve been playing really consistently, and playing the role that they want me to,” he said.

McKaigue looks forward to every game, so he can put all the skills he’s been trying so hard to perfect into practice.

“I was talking to the coaches and I said if I could play three or four games a week I would because the best way of learning for me is playing games, and the best way to get confident is playing games. I love playing games every weekend.”