Patience is the name of the game for Tempo and Fermanagh footballer Blaithin Bogue who last month joined the North Melbourne Kangaroos for the 2024 Australian Football League Women’s season.
Bogue penned a two-year deal to make it a fab four of Irish players on the 2023 Grand Final runners-up playing list alongside Cork’s Erika O’Shea, Tipperary’s Niamh Martin, and Meath’s Vikki Wall.
AFLW pre-season started in June but Bogue’s GAA season, which memorably culminated in helping Fermanagh to claim a third TG4 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship title after defeating Louth on August 5, left her with only two weeks of pre-season training before the AFLW season kicked off last weekend.
Despite the understandable difficulties of learning the nuances of a new sport, 10,000 miles away across the other side of the world in Melbourne. Bogue is buoyed by the confidence that her Kangaroos’ coaches have placed in the Erne County excitement machine.
“I am loving being at North Melbourne, I am enjoying learning, and I know that I have to be patient because it will some time to learn all of the basics of playing Australian Rules football,” Bogue told The Irish News.
“I am not expecting too much when it comes to playing games and if I don’t play any AFLW games this year, all of the training will definitely stand me in good stead for next year.
“North Melbourne have been fantastic to me because they knew I couldn’t make it out here until about two weeks before the season started, but in my contract, there is an agreement for me to be here earlier next year.
“It’s a big challenge, I’ve only had five or six training sessions, and only one full contact session but I am pushing myself to keep improving, and I am trying as hard as I can to work on every facet of the game.”
Bogue, who was memorably serenaded to some hilarious carpool karaoke from O’Shea, Martin, and Australian teammate Ella Slocombe upon her arrival on August 11, has kept in touch with former Fermanagh captain Joanne Doonan.
The three-time All-Ireland winner made history in 2019 when she became the first woman from Ulster to sign professionally for an Australian Rules club until the global Covid pandemic disrupted her plans.
The former Carlton and Essendon player was delisted by the latter last year when she opted to return home following the tragic passing of her mother-in law.
“I have rung Joanne a couple of times, and she’s always very positive, and encourages me to stick with it, be patient, and remember that the other Irish girls at North Melbourne have been through the same thing,” Bogue explained.
“The most difficult aspect of making the transition to Australian Rules is learning structural and positional sense.
“In the past two years, North Melbourne have built a team that has worked on the way they want to play, and they reached the Grand Final last year.
“Gaelic football is more free flowing, whereas in Australian Rules I am learning the skills of running off the ball as well as team structures at stoppages.”
Bogue revealed that her talented sister and 2024 Miss Northern Ireland contestant Cadhla (21), who is in the final year of a pharmacy course at Queen’s University, would not hesitate to join her at North Melbourne if she was offered a contract next year.
“Cadhla would jump at the chance to come out her if she was offered a contract, and it would be fantastic to have her here, but she will make her own decisions about her future,” Bogue said.
“I am sure she would appreciate everything that North Melbourne have done for me as well.
“The club have gone out of their way to help me settle, all of my teammates have been very supportive, and in training the head coach Darren Crocker brings everything back to basics.”
Bogue also confirmed that she would not think twice about making herself available to play international rules for Ireland if an inaugural women’s hybrid match is staged against an Australian team next year.
“I would always want to play for my country; that’s a given,” Bogue said.