Waterford's Kellyann Hogan: 'Being a professional athlete, I don't think it will be a long-term thing'
Kellyann Hogan will not be returning to Australia until after the conclusion of the LGFA season. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
If they had their way at Collingwood, Kellyann Hogan would probably be out in Australia right now for the AFLW pre-season.
Preparations for the 11th AFLW season officially began last week with 2025 Waterford captain and All-Star Emma Murray involved with Geelong.
Hogan, in the second of a two-year contract with Collingwood following an injury interrupted first campaign, isn't returning until after the LGFA season concludes.
And that could be some time yet given the upward curve of Waterford's graph with Sunday's Munster final against Kerry the immediate target.
"I think three years ago we were just surviving in senior and surviving in Division 1," said attacker Hogan at the announcement that Avonmore Protein Milk are extending their partnership with the GAA/GPA by five years.
"We never looked like we were ever going to win anything really, I reckon. But the last two years, the shackles are off and we're just playing football. I do think we were quite defensive and weren't playing much attacking football.
"But we have a real focus now on pushing up on teams and attacking teams. We're putting up great scores, I think we scored 3-18 against Cork in the Munster round robin. We never would have been scoring that a few years ago."
Asked to explain why things have turned for Waterford, former captain Hogan puts a lot of it down to the influence of Kerry man Tomás Mac an tSaoir who is in his second season managing the Deise.
They left a Munster title behind them last year, coughing up two late goals to Kerry in a narrow final loss.
So Waterford probably feel they owe Kerry one this Sunday in Rathkeale?
"We do, yeah," said Hogan. "They got ahead of us in the last 10 minutes last year. We lost by two, so that was a sore one."
The Munster winners will go into Group 2 of the All-Ireland series, along with Kildare and Tipperary. Whoever loses will be in Group 1 with Cork and the Ulster champions.
"Hopefully we can get there now and have a better group but I think Munster is our main focus at the moment," said Hogan, part of a Waterford team that topped the round robin with wins over Kerry, Cork and Tipperary.
When the All-Ireland series concludes, Hogan will make a quick pivot to the oval ball game and a resumption of her AFLW career.
"All the people that are going out, they're big competitors and you want that challenge of, 'Would I be able to do it?'" she said, explaining her interest. "That's probably the biggest thing for me, just having that competitive nature and being like, 'Jeez, I'd love to give that a go'. And being a professional athlete full-time, I don't think it will be a long-term thing for me.
"I do love playing here so I'll probably focus on Waterford in the next few years and see where I go from there."
Hogan gets it that the drain of talent Down Under is harming ladies football. There's so many Irish in Australia now that they're even arranging an inaugural women's International Rules game, with an oval ball, this summer.
"Will it slow down in the next few years, who knows?" said Hogan. "Surely the Australians will have some talent coming through at some stage. Hopefully they do and then we can get our sport back."
Hogan's first season in Australia was undermined by shoulder and knee issues. She made just four appearances.
"It's a very physical game, probably not as much skill to it," she said. "It's very different to football here. Here, you're picking out a pass, you're looking for someone all the time. Over there, it's just any way you can get the ball forward is the best way. That probably took a long time for me to realise that, and it's probably why I was getting big hits, I was looking for a pass rather than just trying to get it forward."
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