CROW Niamh Kelly has had quite the sporting career to date, which started on sporting fields far away from the city of churches.

Kelly is one of the many Irish stars currently plying their trade in the AFLW, so her sporting journey began on the Gaelic fields of her home county Mayo.

“I’ve grown up always playing Gaelic football from a really young age,” Kelly said. “I play with County Mayo at home in Ireland, and I’ve played for a number of years, since I was about six or seven. I played with the boys for a couple of years because we had no ladies team, and then I worked my way onto the County team.”

Her journey to the AFLW began in 2018 where she was contacted by the Crosscoders agency to apply for the chance to come out to Australia to play in the AFLW. There was a camp out in Melbourne but she unfortunately could not go due to the restraints of her job as a teacher back home in Mayo.

Luckily for her, things changed the following year when she was ultimately contacted by four clubs and found herself at West Coast alongside sister Grace Kelly.

It was not coincidence that both Kelly sisters ended up at West Coast, it was somewhat planned but the Eagles were very open to the idea of them both coming out to the club together.

The Kellys are not the only stars from Mayo out in the AFLW at the moment, with the likes Aileen Gilroy, Sarah Rowe, Cora Staunton and Rachel Kearns all hailing from the Yew County.

Kelly said that she is close with the other AFLW stars from her home county, and does find it weird having to come up against them instead of being on their team.

“I played for a couple of years back home with them so I’m very close with them, and it’s funny to come up against them,” she said.

“It’s a different experience definitely being on different teams, but it’s a part of footy, so when you’re away from home we’ll always go up to each other after the game and see how we’re getting on.”

Following season six, Kelly made the decision to leave West Coast to further her development as a footballer.

Unfortunately, this meant she was no longer going to be playing with her sister, who also left West Coast bound for St Kilda.

Kelly said the pair have rarely played on opposing teams, so this was a new experience for the both of them.

“We’ve only every once played against each other and that was when we were in college back at home and we played in the All Ireland Final against each other,” she said. “It was only a one-point margin between the teams, so it’s definitely different being on different teams. I miss her at times, but it’s definitely a good experience.”

Even with the short turnaround between seasons, Kelly was lucky enough to be able to head home to Ireland for about three months. She did not play for Mayo at county level due to clashing schedules, but did play for local club Moy Davitts.

Kelly has had a slight injury hiccup this season, injuring her shoulder in her side’s win over Collingwood, but is now back out there and ready to help her team’s push towards yet another finals series.