Take 2: Brid Stack sets off for another Giants adventure

Bríd Stack with Cárthach and Cárthach Óg

Brid Stack has departed for Sydney for a second spell with Greater Western Sydney Giants, insisting she “couldn’t leave it like that”, after missing the entire AFLW season last year through injury.

The former Cork ladies football great suffered a serious neck injury in a pre-season game last January and came within millimetres of paralysis.

But having mulled over her future in the new sport, she eventually accepted the Giants’ offer of another contract for the upcoming campaign.

Brid Stack playing for Greater Western Sydney Giants Picture via Twitter

She again heads Down Under with husband Cárthach Keane and their son Cárthach Óg.

Stack tweeted: “Sure we couldn’t leave it like that! Looking forward to another wonderful adventure in Sydney with my two favourite travel buddies. Thanks so much for all the lovely messages. Ye’re a sound bunch. See you soon @GWSGIANTS #take2

Now 34, Stack admitted, in an interview with the Irish Examiner in August, that it hadn’t been an easy decision to give Australian Rules one more go.

“I took everyone’s thoughts and feelings into consideration but at the end of it all, I had to make that decision for myself.

“I wanted to go back and give it one more shot. And I have everyone’s blessing now.

“The biggest thing for me is to enjoy it and embrace it and be present in it and not be always chasing it like I was last year. And I really want to enjoy the whole experience with the two lads.”

Stack will have to quarantine for two weeks in Sydney before beginning pre-season, with the AFLW campaign kicking off in January.