Nash back on track in pursuit of AFL dream
THE wheel keeps turning for Conor Nash. After helping Simonstown to a second successive Meath SFC title on Sunday, he has only a couple of days to himself before he heads back Down Under to resume life in the AFL.
Hawthorn’s pre-season starts on Monday and Nash isn’t shying away from what he wants from the year.
“(A senior appearance) is the ultimate goal. But if it doesn’t happen, once you’re improving... the goal is probably top-five players in the VFL consistently for a few weeks, then you should be getting your shot.
“There’s brilliant communication between the coaches, they’ll tell you where you’re at. It’s very easy for us to go up and say, ‘Look, where am I at? I feel I’m playing well, I’m just not getting my chance, what do I need to improve on?’ And they’ll tell you out straight. That’s the ultimate goal next year. But if it doesn’t happen next year I’ll still be looking to keep improving.”
His first season started well and saw him promoted to the senior squad for the final pre-season game. From there he featured regularly for Hawthorn’s reserve side Box Hill Hawks in the VFL before a hamstring injury ruled him out for three months.
It had the potential to be a tricky period for a young man trying to settle so far from home particularly with his family scattered across the globe. Nash lives in Melbourne while work has taken his father to Jordan in the Middle East. His mother and siblings are home in Navan. But he’s full of praise for the club and how they have helped him settle in.
“The first bit, that bit from Christmas on to September, is the main one, once you get over that it’s fine. But look, technology these days is outrageous, there’s FaceTime, it’s brilliant. If there was a time that I was feeling a bit homesick the club look after you so well, if you need a few days, just not going to training or a few other things, if you need to go down the coast, whatever, meet up with some family out there, fire ahead, because they know it’s a big move.”
SIZEABLE
Along with his clubmate, Derry’s Conor Glass, there is a sizeable Irish AFL contingent based around Melbourne with Conor McKenna (Essendon), Darragh Joyce and Ray Connellan (both St Kilda), Mark O’Connor (Geelong) and Ciarán Byrne (Carlton), while Ciarán Sheehan has just finished up his stint with Carlton.
And they often clash in the VFL. “We play each other quite a bit. It’s very funny, like, somebody asked me about the sledging abuse that goes on, you get a small bit of it from the Aussie boys, ‘Ah you’re Irish, it’s a different ball’, all that kind of stuff. But the best craic is when you play against the other Irish boys and you’re lining up. I remember Ciarán Sheehan was giving me abuse that Meath men can’t kick a ball, that they haven’t been able to since the 1980s. That sort of thing is a bit of craic, a bit of banter, but it’s very good to have that serious network there.”
Nash and Glass share a house and the Derry man’s progress offers encouragement. Glass forced his way into the first team last season.
“He had some really nice form going in the VFL at that time, it gave him his opportunity. He went in with six games to go and stayed in there for the last six with the seniors. It went extremely well. It gives me serious belief that they’re – not willing to take a chance – but that they’re willing to give the opportunity. And if they work, then they’re willing to keep you in there.”
Nash will miss Simonstown’s Leinster Club SFC clash with Wexford side Starlights. He’ll be disappointed to sit it out it but knows that’s what he signed up for when he opted to go Down Under.
“This is what I’m doing. I would say if you were kind of half-hearted and thinking, ‘What if I was at home playing with the boys? Or what if I went playing rugby, if I’d went that path how would that have gone?’ Then it’s not going to work for you, you need to be 100 per cent committed to the job. So I’m doing Aussie Rules at the moment, I’m completely focused on that until I’m told otherwise, that it’s not going to work.”