From Herald Sun in Melbourne (8 March 2009)

Setanta O'hAilpin

He was hurling's equivalent of the AFL's Rising Star as a teenager; countryman and Sydney star Tadhg Kennelly says he was the Chris Judd of the sport.

He was seen to be destined to follow his famous brother, Sean Og, but he wanted more.

"It was the fact that it wasn't professional and it wasn't going to be professional in a hurry," Setanta O'hAilpin told the Herald Sun this week in his first extended interview.

Setanta O'hAilpin

"If you ask anyone who loves sport and has an opportunity to become professional, they'd take it with both hands.

"I've seen Cork people like Roy Keane go overseas and play professional soccer.

"When the opportunity arose, geez, I grabbed it with both hands."

In his case, it wasn't a case of simply skipping across the water to England.

For him, it meant a move to the other side of the world, learning a game from scratch.

He was rookie-listed by Carlton in 2004 and has played 35 games for the Northern Bullants, the club's VFL affiliate, and 27 for the Blues.

While there has been precious little for Carlton supporters to cherish from the 2007 season, they have seen the athletic, enthusiastic, determined Irishman take giant steps forward.

He is superbly built at 199cm and 101kg, wants to play, loves to play, is determined to play and has an insatiable thirst for work and knowledge.

"My dad (Sean) understood the professional thing," O'hAilpin says.

"He said, 'If you want to go, give it a shot'.

"My mum (Emily), you know, like mothers do, was pretty sad. But one thing she always taught me was if you want something, and you want it bad enough, you might as well go for it.

"She said, 'It's your life, your decision'; they backed me 100 per cent, so I took the plunge and came out here."

His parents have visited several times and he has two sisters currently visiting, staying with him and his younger brother Aisake, a rookie at Carlton.

"I love every minute of it," he says, beaming.

"Carlton has been nothing but unbelievable to me, and Aisake; they've helped me every step of the way."

While Jim Stynes and Sean Wight, and, more recently, Kennelly, Colm Begley, Martin Clarke and O'hAilpin have or are making the transition from Gaelic to Australian football, there have been a dozen other Irish lads who have tried and failed.

Most are homesick, some simply are better suited to Gaelic football than the Australian version.

Yet as their numbers grow, homesickness diminishes as a problem. The Irish boys have a network. They talk regularly and catch up whenever they can.

O'hAilpin and Kennelly, who didn't know each other in Ireland, speak on the phone every week.

"I knew of him, like, but I'd never met him until a practice game (Sydney v Brisbane Lions at Princes Park) a couple of years ago," O'hAilpin says.

"I used to watch him on television back home. It was a great privilege to meet him.

"He watches my games and gives me a bit of advice. Great fella.

"Myself, Aisake, Begley, Martin Clarke, we catch up as much as we can."

The enthralling O'hAilpin tale had an unusual start.

"My mum's Fijian. She's from a little island 300 miles from Fiji called Rotuma, a little dot in the map," he says.

"They met in Fiji. Dad was working in Nandi on the oil rigs, Mum was working as a hotel maid. One night they caught up."

They married and lived in Sydney for 20 years.

Setanta and Aisake were born in Australia before the family went home to Ireland in the late 1980s, when he was five.

There are four boys and two girls, what he describes as "a normal Irish family".

They share Irish and Fijian names: Sean Og, Teu, Sarote, Setanta, Aisake and Etaoin.

Setanta is thriving on perhaps the broadest education any player has been given in the AFL.

He plays each week and has played in defence (full-back), forward and even in the ruck.

"Denis (Pagan) dragged me aside one Friday afternoon and said, 'You're going to be rucking'.

"When I first went in there, I thought, 'Jesus, what's happening here?'

"I just looked at it as another opportunity. As of now, geez, I'm enjoying it. It's something new, another string to my bow. I can always say I've played everywhere in Aussie rules."

He declares an indebtedness to so many people at Carlton. "Denis has been very good to me. I'd like to pay him back," he says.

Then there's Bullants coach Barry Mitchell, Pagan's assistants Tony Liberatore, Brett Ratten and Terry Daniher, property steward Wayne Gilbert, whom he hounds for footballs, and Anthony Koutoufides, who has spent countless hours with him in one-on-one skills sessions.

"I can't pinpoint one, they've all been so good to me," he says.

Outside Carlton, Kennelly has been his inspiration, his confidant, his support.

"I look up to him so much. He's an icon back home. To have done what he's done, it's unbelievable," he says.

"We just talk like friends. He'll say, 'I watched the game and this is what you did, what you could have done'. Geez, I look forward to it every week."

Kennelly called him early in the week leading up to last Sunday's Swans-Carlton game and said, "You better look out, you Cork bollock".

They embraced on the field after the game.

As exciting as it is for O'hAilpin this year, it has been a long and often frustrating apprenticeship.

"There's been days, games where I've played (with the Bullants) at Cramer St and thought, 'Geez, I'm a million miles away from playing AFL, you know'," he says.

"Days when I first came here and I'd be in bed and I'd be thinking, 'S---, what am I doing, what am I putting myself through?'

"Then, to run out underneath the banner at the MCG and to look around at so many people who have come to watch you play week in, week out, it's something no one can take away from me.

"Always in the back of my head I had this thing that one day I'm going to play AFL.

"You've got to keep believing in yourself. I'm just learning my trade, as heaps of footballers do.

"I kept saying to myself I was here and I was here to stay. I gave up a lot of things back home, I sacrificed a lot and I wanted to give it a fair effort, everything I had. If it didn't work out, in 10 years' time when I'm back home I can say, 'Geez, I went out there to Australia and I gave it my all and it just didn't work out'. I didn't want to have any regrets."

Events of recent weeks have lifted his confidence. He has played all 15 games this year, and there's every indication Aisake will be elevated from the rookie list next year.

He describes his younger brother as "a little bit taller (201cm) and a bit faster".

"My mum reckons my grandparents (her side) were pretty tall people," he says.

The great adventure has had its disappointments, but there has been the occasional thrill to sustain him, too.

"Winning against Essendon (Round 3) was a massive moment, just an unbelievable feeling," he says.

"The Richmond game (Round 1); my first goal - I loved it."

As strange as it sounds, O'hAilpin might have been born to play this game.

In addition to his height and athleticism, he enjoys the unstructured nature of the game and its physicality.

He is, he says, a work in progress.

Kicking for goal, for example. No, he's not nervous, but he is so intent on routine and technique, he runs too close to the man on the mark.

He credits Mitchell and Liberatore with teaching him how to kick. While he is more rigid in his execution than, say, Kennelly, he is getting better and hits targets. "Barry Mitchell taught me an awful lot about the game," he says.

Interesting that former Sydney captain Paul Kelly made a similar observation of Mitchell at his induction to the Australian football Hall of Fame on Thursday night.

O'hAilpin says he is happy bouncing the oval ball, doesn't worry about umpiring decisions, didn't realise you couldn't kick the ball "off the floor" any time you liked and was puzzled as to why you can be free-kicked for playing on when kicking in from outside the boundary line.

He still misses home; the simple things.

"Especially the summers, the bit of good weather we get, the football, the hurling, the fact I'm not playing with my older brother Sean Og. Playing in the backyard, like the Selwoods," he says.

"But I'm obviously fulfilling my dream.

"Every week, I'm getting more confident.

"The balls are just starting to stick, players are starting to kick the ball to me."

"I just want to play each week, week in, week out, and play as much footy as I can because it's something that I really love, like.

"I'm doing OK, obviously I've got a long way to go, but, you know, I'm getting there. Everything takes time."

Talking about time, he had to run. He had badgered Kouta into another kick-to-kick session.