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"You wouldn't find an AFL ball here in Mayo" - Cora Staunton on her very sudden intro to Australian Rules

A few weeks ago, Mayo legend Cora Staunton joined Joe for a chat in which she gave a real insight...



"You wouldn't find an...
Other Sports

"You wouldn't find an AFL ball here in Mayo" - Cora Staunton on her very sudden intro to Australian Rules

A few weeks ago, Mayo legend Cora Staunton joined Joe for a chat in which she gave a real insight into her life and career.

Fast forward to this month and the four time All Ireland Ladies football champion is preparing to start a new adventure in Australia with Greater Western Sydney Giants of the relatively new AFL Women's Australian Rules championship.

"A big move, looking forward to it and just came back yesterday morning," she said as she joined Joe for a chat about her decision to try out a different sport on the other side of the world. 

"You wouldn't find an AFL ball here in Mayo" - Cora Staunton on her very sudden intro to Australian Rules

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"I'm moving back out in a couple of weeks time now, so back to work for a few weeks and then off to do another job then for another couple of months."

Staunton had been aware that a move to the AFLW was in the offing since August when she recorded a video session in Castlebar with the Sydney coach using an AFL ball to test kicking and catching, but had to put things on hold until after Mayo's All Ireland campaign ended in the final in September. 

"It was in the pipeline since then but nothing was guaranteed," said Staunton, who arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday ahead of the draft. 

The video session with coach Alan McConnell's son in Castlebar was her first proper introduction to playing the sport: "You wouldn't find an AFL ball here in Mayo, so that was my first kind of practice of it and he was just showing me the technique and stuff. We only did half an hour and from there we just had a chat in one of the coffee shops in town."

Staunton added that learning to pass the ball is the thing she is concentrating on and highlighted a "couple of differences" in kicking technique and will have more sessions in December in January.

But it was attending the Asian Games, which she has done regularly, which helped her come into contact with McConnell.

"I was out in Shanghai last October, November for the Asian Games and I've been going over for the last number of years and that's where I met Nicholas [Walsh, assistant coach] - I wouldn't have met Nicholas before at all - and he was telling me what his job was and referred to the AFL Women's team and he mentioned to Alan about me.

"So a small conversation with someone in China turned into me playing professional sport in Sydney which is all very strange."

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