While Melbournians sweltered through the heat of summer, two of Officer’s brightest young football talents were testing their Gaelic football skills in the grips of a Northern Hemisphere winter.
McKenna O’Reilly and Kayla Dalgleish, from Officer Junior Football Club and the Dandenong Stingrays Coates Talent League side, were part of a 39-player squad to visit the United Kingdom in late December and January with the Wanderers Australia travel group, playing in exhibition games of Gaelic and Australian football against local sides.
They played five games in total, testing their skills with a round ball and in bitterly cold conditions, and making life-long friends along the way, having been paired with an opponent and spending the night at their homes after games.
Both admitted that they were unfamiliar with playing the Gaelic game, but for O’Reilly, there was a sense of pride in playing with the round ball.
“I had never played Gaelic before but I am Irish and my grandad did play Gaelic, so he was quite happy that I was going over and playing,” she said.
“I think it was much easier to adapt to the round ball compared to the oval ball.
“I think it was the ball-drop, from an AFL ball it’s different and so much more precise, with a Gaelic ball you can kind of hit it down and you’ll be okay.
“The hardest thing would have been ‘soloing’, a lot of the Aussie girls couldn’t quite get that one and seeing the Irish girls go at full pace with that, was pretty impressive.”
A ‘solo’ is where a player kicks the ball to themselves on the run, and must be completed after every four steps.
Alternatively, the player can bounce the ball instead of performing the solo.
Dalgleish concurred with her teammate, and added that the difference in physicality took some adjusting.
“I think it would have been a lot harder for them to adjust to our ball, that would have been much harder, but our kicks half the time were going out on the full,” she said.
“It was so difficult because you can’t touch them. You can’t ‘bear-hug’, nothing, it’s like basketball on the field.
“You only have a slap at the ball and if you touch their hand, it’s a free-kick. All us girls found that very hard.”
With kicking being only a minor component of the Irish game in comparison to Aussie rules, the dashing flankers relished in the ability to run and carry the ball.
For O’Reilly, she said the speed of ball-movement by hand will be something she will look to implement to her game at Coates League level.
“Definitely the quick hands because in Gaelic, kicking is not a very good option,” she said.
“You’re better-off running in a group of three or four and getting quick hands, and weaving it quickly.
“It’s more of a running game and there’s less kicking, the only time you really kick is when you go for goal.”
Weather conditions also proved difficult for O’Reilly, who fell victim to the rain and wind in one contest.
“In our fourth game, I genuinely got brain-freeze because of how cold it was,” she said.
“You could choose to wear gloves but the rain comes from the side and it stings you in the eyes because it was so cold.”
While both girls enjoyed the experiences on the field, the travelling component and mingling with their opponents after games proved to be a highlight.
“All the friends I made were the main (highlights),” Dalgleish said.
“Seeing the different architecture and the way people do things is so different over there and getting the experience of how everyone is so different.
“After the game we would meet up with them (their host partner), go back to their house and drop our bags, then come back to the club rooms and all have a dinner.
“Sometimes they showed us some Irish dancing, and music and one time they taught us hurling, so we learnt a lot of different stuff.”
The Officer girls’ Coates League season begins in mid-March.
