{"id":35939,"date":"2018-06-12T20:54:59","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T10:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afldraftcentral.com.au\/?p=35939"},"modified":"2021-11-12T07:28:25","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T21:28:25","slug":"abbie-mckays-football-family-inspires-her-success-in-aussie-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2018\/06\/12\/abbie-mckays-football-family-inspires-her-success-in-aussie-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbie McKay\u2019s football family inspires her success in Aussie Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANDRINGHAM Dragons midfielder, <\/span>Abbie McKay <\/b>might the daughter of former Carlton player, <\/span>Andrew McKay, <\/b>but she is making a name of her own in football. <\/span><\/p>\n

McKay starred in the middle of the ground for the Dragons this year, being named among the best players five times during the nine-round season.<\/span><\/p>\n

With a father who played 244 games for the Carlton Football Club, footy was always in McKay\u2019s veins. Her early memories of the game were not watching her dad play, but simply kicking the footy with him at the park. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad played 240 games or something like that so I always grew up with it (footy),\u201d she said. \u201cI had to go and kick the footy at the park with my brother and him so that\u2019s how I got into it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite his illustrious career, McKay admits she was oblivious to her dad\u2019s role at the Blues. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just my dad so to be honest, I probably didn\u2019t realise he played for Carlton,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n

After a couple of Auskick stints, McKay turned her attention to basketball, netball and tennis. Then at 15 years of age, she found her love for football, but this time, she had her mum to thank. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was about 15, my mum just thought it would be fun to start up a team at the local club,\u201d the now 17 year-old said. \u201cSo we got together with lots of school friends and my love grew from there. I just got out there and I was like this is so much fun, I get to tackle!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In her short football career, McKay has already achieved so much. When she was asked to play for the Sandringham Dragons in the TAC Cup Girls competition, she was given the belief that she needed to pursue her footballing career further. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI got asked to join Sandy Dragons and I was like \u2018oh maybe I actually have a shot at this\u2019,\u201d McKay recalled. \u201cI thought I may as well give it a go. I didn\u2019t really know what it was so I just got asked about it and thought I\u2019ll just go down and see what it\u2019s like. Then people told me about how big it actually is. I was like that\u2019s pretty cool!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

After a solid season at the TAC Cup Girls club, McKay received the shock of her life when she was named in the Vic Metro squad for this year\u2019s AFL Women\u2019s National Under 18 Championships. The 17 year-old says she didn\u2019t see the selection coming, but is thankful for the opportunity. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNever in a million years!,\u201d she said about her thoughts on ever being selected for Vic Metro. \u201cI got asked and I was like \u2018really? You want me?\u2019 It\u2019s so cool and getting to know all the girls is really nice.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

On top of that, she is keeping the McKay name alive at Carlton, as she is currently training with the Blues\u2019 VFL Women\u2019s side. But above all, McKay is a role model to her younger sister, who loves the game and wants to be just like her big sister when she grows up. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe is obsessed (with football),\u201d McKay said. \u201cEvery time I get back from Vic Metro she asks \u2018are you going to become a footy player yet?\u2019 I\u2019m like ‘don\u2019t get your hopes up too soon!’ But no she loves it, she wants to be the same when she\u2019s older.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SANDRINGHAM Dragons midfielder, Abbie McKay might the daughter of former Carlton player, Andrew McKay, but she is making a name of her own in football. McKay starred in the middle of the ground for the Dragons this year, being named among the best players five times during the nine-round season. With a father who played […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":32732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,7950,8,11596,18223,137],"tags":[3315,11665,3314,55,9539,42,138,4599,1880],"class_list":["post-35939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-nab-league-girls","category-news","category-sandringham-dragons","category-sandringham-dragons-girls","category-womens","tag-abbie-mckay","tag-abbie-mckay-feature","tag-andrew-mckay","tag-carlton","tag-nab-league-girls-features","tag-sandringham-dragons","tag-tac-cup-girls","tag-vfl-womens","tag-vic-metro"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87913,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35939\/revisions\/87913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}