BEING in foster care from three weeks old until she was 13, Paris McCarthy felt like she always had something to prove. 

Though she was fostered by the McCarthy family the whole time - and eventually adopted by them as a teenager - she still had contact with her birth mother, and spent many years navigating the complex emotions of her situation.

Though it was hard for a young McCarthy to understand, the experience ultimately gave her the motivation to become the versatile and highly decorated sportswoman she is today, playing at the highest level in three sports.

"I was really lucky, my life could have been so different. For it to have ended up the way it has, it's given me a lot of resilience and that's something I've carried with me the whole way. At times, I've thought potentially I might not make it, but then thought if I work hard and keep believing, I will," McCarthy told AFL.com.au.

"When I was younger, I didn't really understand what was happening. I was with the McCarthys for that entire period (fostering into adoption), which was amazing, because it gave me the stability. 

"Being adopted is different, but when you're fostered, you still have to occasionally meet [your birth mother], and a lot of the time, that didn't happen. She'd say she'd come, and she didn't. I feel like that was hard for me to understand as a little girl. 

"In a sense, I feel like it gave me a purpose to prove that I'm worth something – which obviously, I am – but I think as a young kid, I just put my head down. I started playing (Gaelic) football and basketball when I was four years old, and since then, that's what's motivated me. I also realise that the opportunity I've got was really lucky. I could have ended up anywhere, and to end up playing here is something I didn't expect."

The drive and determination McCarthy has developed was rewarded with selection in Ireland’s team to face Australia on Saturday, and while some teammates were loud and ecstatic, McCarthy’s stoicism cracked, and she was overcome with emotion.

Tanya Kennedy (who has since had to withdraw with a back complaint) almost yelled at coach Colin O'Riordan when he appeared in her apartment, accusing him of "scaring the absolute shit out of me" and loudly declaring "F*** yeah" when he asked if she was ready to play for Ireland.

By contrast, 22-year-old McCarthy was incredulous, responding with "really?", before embracing her coach in tears, the pair shrouded in an Irish flag.

McCarthy has so far packed an awful lot into a short life.

She has played for county Kerry in Gaelic football, basketball for Ireland (representing her country at U16, U18 and U20 level) as well as spent a year shooting hoops on a full scholarship with East Tennessee State University in the US.

Irish basketball training would see McCarthy rise at 4.30am on a Saturday, travel the four hours from Kerry to Dublin to train all day, and return home in the evening ahead Gaelic football training the next day.

Then came the AFLW and Sydney in 2023, and she has played 23 games in her three seasons, including all 12 last year.

With a group of around 45 Irish players to choose from for the representative game, only a handful would have been fairly confident of their participation in the game, but there were plenty who felt they were on the fringe of selection, McCarthy included.

She'd had ankle surgery in March, and wasn't sure whether she'd done enough in pre-season to warrant being picked, so when O'Riordan appeared outside her apartment door at 9pm, after she'd finished coaching a local Gaelic women's side (Penrith Gaels), it was a genuine shock.

"To be honest, I hadn't thought about it too much. I'm one of the youngest (Irish) players, so I wasn't sure if it'd go by experience, who'd been here longer, that kind of stuff," McCarthy said.

"The good thing is Colin sees me every single day and the way I train, and he's given me a lot of confidence over the last year. 

"Colin's been there since I landed in Sydney. From the beginning, he taught me to soak everything in and give it everything. Whenever I needed help on or off the field, he was there. As a coach, I've never seen anyone give so much to a team. He's genuinely by far the best coach I've ever had, on or off the field. He's clear and relatable, he understands the perspective of the players. He's just fantastic. 

"We all played against each other in Ireland, and now to have the opportunity to play together isn't something I thought would happen. To get to play alongside Sarah Rowe, Orla O'Dwyer – these are girls I knew of back in Ireland, who I would watch on YouTube. It's pretty weird, I won't tell them that."

After a year in Tennessee, McCarthy made the decision to leave basketball behind and give AFLW a shot.

"When I was about 15, I was sent a jersey from this company in Ireland – they said I could pick one and have it. I actually picked the Swans guernsey. I didn't know it was the Swans, I just liked it. Then when I did my interview with the Swans, that jersey was in the video, so it was meant to be," she said.

"When I was playing with Kerry on the senior women's team, it was my first year, and I'd spoken to some people about the AFLW. I said no at the time, because I was going to America and had already signed and all of that. But I was aware of it, I used to see it. But it was only as it became bigger in Ireland that I took notice of it.

"Playing basketball in America, it was a bit more of a rural area, I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to and I wanted to be somewhere that was kind of similar to Ireland in the sense there was a lot of Irish, and there was a bit more stability in that sense. I was the only European person on my basketball team, and I felt out of place.

"Julie (O'Sullivan, Kerry teammates since they were 14) got signed at the same time, and that was the balance I needed."