It's all fallen into place nicely for Conor Glass, but coming home from Australia was a bigger wrench for him than going there in the first place.
Upping sticks as an 18-year-old back in 2016 wasn’t necessarily a straightforward call, but the size of the opportunity meant that it was one that he was always likely to take, with Hawthorn keen on his services.
Having captained Derry minors in 2015, he signed for the AFL club on a category B contract before moving to Melbourne in July of the following year.
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“I wouldn’t say it was a hard decision,” he says. “Any young footballer wants to be professional. It’s a professional environment. And the life experiences you got out there, it was unbelievable.
“People travel to Australia just to experience a different way of life. Whereas I had that in a professional environment. It was an easy choice in the end. Thankfully I had the support of my family and my community as well.”
He made his AFL debut within a year and though his career hadn’t quite taken off as he might have hoped, he was up to 21 appearances when he decided to come home at the end of the 2020 season. He was still only 22 - younger than Oisin Mullin is now, the former Mayo star having recently broken into the Geelong team.
At the time, Derry were in Division Three, but they’ll be back in top flight next year and have won successive Ulster titles, while Glass picked up an All Star last year.
