Eimear Ryan: Irish players an essential part of AFLW's history

There are now four Irish AFLW winners: Bláithín Mackin, Sinead Goldrick, Orla O’Dwyer, and Clare dual star Ailish Considine, who has won twice with Adelaide in 2019 and early 2022

HISTORY MAKER: Bláithín Mackin of the Demons and Armagh is tackled by Dakota Davidson of the Lions during the 2022 AFLW Season 7 Grand Final match between the Brisbane Lions and the Melbourne Demons at Brighton Homes Arena, Springfield, Ipswich in Ipswich, Australia. Pic: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks in the Mackin household. First, 25-year-old Aimee, one of the top scorers for the Armagh senior ladies football team, won her third TG4 All-Star (and Armagh’s only All-Star of 2022). Then, last Sunday, 23-year-old Bláithín won an AFLW Premiership title with the Melbourne Demons in her first season. (The two brothers on the Armagh men’s football squad, Connaire and Ciaran, are no slouches either.) 

The Mackin sisters’ story of the 2022 season neatly encapsulates female excellence in modern Irish football – as does the achievement of Sinead Goldrick, also on the winning Demons side, who became the first Irishwoman to be both an All-Ireland champion and an AFLW Premiership winner. Having lost the earlier 2022 Grand Final to the Adelaide Crows (there’s been a bit of a switcheroo in the AFLW calendar), this victory must have felt extra sweet for Goldrick.