ÁINE McDonagh is playing blockbuster footy now, but being thrust into an unfamiliar sport prompted a crisis of confidence when she joined the competition.

Enter Hawthorn triple premiership stars Luke Breust and Jack Gunston.

After a little mentoring from the two AFL Hawks greats, she's now a dynamic and speedy forward who hits the scoreboard every match, with fans flocking to Hawthorn games to see the 28-year-old Irishwoman do her thing. 

Hailing from Moycullen in Galway, Ireland, McDonagh began her athletic career as a Gaelic footballer and basketballer before she was given her opportunity to join the AFLW in 2022. Suddenly she was playing a sport that felt unnatural to her, and her confidence took a beating. 

It wasn’t until Gunston and Breust gave her an impromptu goal-kicking lesson early on in her time at the club that she redeveloped her confidence to play her own brand of footy. 

“I came in on one of my off days, and I was at the shed floor with all the footballs, I was kicking from one end to the other,” McDonagh told AFL.com.au.

“Luke kind of stopped and was looking at me laughing at how terrible I was, and then called, ‘Gunners’ over, and they just spent like a half an hour just trying to teach me how to kick. 

“I honestly thought that they were just nice guys trying to help me out, and then Keegan (Brooksby, Hawthorn's women's footy boss) afterwards was like, ‘do you know who they are?’ And I was like, ‘no, of course, I have no idea.’ 

“Then he started listing off all the accolades they had and I was like, wow. And I just thought that was such a testament to their character that they've done all of this, and then they're so willing to help out a very struggling, very poor girl kicking footballs, so it was really nice.” 

McDonagh is candid about her challenging start to her AFLW career. Used to excelling in her home country, she initially struggled to come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t the best at this new sport. 

“I remember when I came out the first time, I came out in like June or July, and I absolutely hated it the first six months. I remember, going home over Christmas and saying to everyone how much I was enjoying it (but) secretly in my head, not liking it,” McDonagh said.

“It was also probably hard for me to wrap my head around that I was the worst at a sport. You know, you kind of come from being, like, one of the better players on your team. And then coming out and being at the very bottom of the pack and not even able to do the basic skills that others have been doing easily. 

“I really struggled with kind of that part of it, and wrapping my head around that, struggling to see how I was going to make up so much ground in such a short amount of time.” 

As McDonagh tried to play catch-up to those around her, she found herself trying to change even the most natural parts of her athleticism to fit a style she thought everyone wanted from her. Spending countless hours trying to mimic the Australian way of kicking, it was an arduous way to get up to speed. 

But Breust and Gunston had a different way of teaching things, they were going to focus on the basics – the McDonagh basics. 

Guiding her to kick the way that she would as a Gaelic footballer, the two Hawks champions only implemented small additions, and gave her the full licence to play the way that felt right to her. 

“When I came over first, I was very much being taught to kick the generic way that the Australians would,” she said. 

“Very straight, you know, kick the leg through, whereas they were kind of trying to basically tell me how to kick the ball how I wanted to kick the ball naturally, and then they were just trying to tweak that more than trying to teach me an entirely new way to kick the ball. 

“It was the first time that I kind of felt like I was…I guess it gave me a bit of confidence that I was over here for a reason and remember why I was of brought out here. That I was able to play my own game, it just didn't look how you guys play it, but it was still a way to do a kick. So, it was kind of more that, they were just telling me, ‘Well, just kick how you want to kick it, but tilt the ball this way,’ rather than actually changing my technique of kicking.”

Nearly five years on, McDonagh still kicks like that now. So much so that Hawthorn AFL coach Sam Mitchell puts a stop to it anytime she reverts back to trying to copy an Aussie rules kick.  

“Anytime that we’re in the shed, and I'm trying to kick differently Sam always tells me to stop trying to be Australian, because I would be the worst Australian,” McDonagh laughs. 

“Anytime that I try to kick like that, he always just says ‘stop doing that and just kick how you want to kick.’  

“It has definitely helped me out so much…I guess, not thinking about how I can kick it, just kicking it the way I want to, it’s just given me more confidence to do that.”

Clearly, kicking the ball the Irish way is working for McDonagh. As it stands, she’s currently the league’s leading goalkicker in 2026, booting three goals in her first four games of the season, before finally breaking through to her career-best four goals against the Western Bulldogs in round five. 

Athletic in the forward line and playing differently to a regular key forward, it’s difficult for opposition defenders to play on McDonagh. And she’s done that on purpose. 

“I think that this is probably another one that Gunners has kind of helped me out with,” McDonagh said. 

“I’m probably too tall to be a small and then too small to be a tall. And I kind of was struggling to fit in a box of what type of player I wanted to be, and he, I guess, is neither of those, as well. So, he was helping me to try to be as smart as I could in how I position myself and how I play the game. 

“I just try to play off instincts and then try to see who my matchups are every weekend, try to use, I guess, if, if there's someone that's small around me, I use my height a bit more, and if there's someone taller around me I try to bring them up the ground and run a bit more.” 

Despite helping her out initially, McDonagh notes that her style of game is a bit different to Gunston’s now. Whilst Gunston is known these days for roaming deep forward, dragging his opponent to the goal square, McDonagh has adapted her own style to move up the ground more, averaging 12 disposals and 4.4 tackles per game. 

“Yeah, that's, that's one thing that I said to [Gunston] this year, that I've kind of moved past his ball knowledge… I want to really move around ground and get up the field and lay tackles, and he won't be able to help me out with that sense,” McDonagh laughs. 

“But yeah, I really enjoy (playing up the ground). I think at home, I played midfield (in Gaelic Football), which was covering the ground, probably the most out of anyone on the field, and I really enjoy the defensive element, as well. I think that my basketball, that my defensive game was probably my biggest attribute.” 

After four and half years playing AFLW, McDonagh will run out for her 50th match this Friday, with her family flying out from Ireland for the first time to watch her play Aussie rules.

Facing reigning premiers North Melbourne in Cairns, the match up against some of the competition's best defenders is daunting for anyone. But McDonagh is ready to bring her best footy in front of her family. 

“You always want to test yourself against the best team, and the standard setters, and that's really the best way you can indicate how you're going, and, North are obviously an incredible team, and have been for some time,” McDonagh said.

“And, you know, I think it's on all of us get to their standards and try to take a good crack at them and to see how well they're going. Just try to prove ourselves so we can compete against the best in the league, so I'm really looking forward to it.”