THE WHATSAPP message was straight to the point: Mark Keane wanted to come back to Australia.

He had read about Fischer McAsey's retirement on the AFL Live app early one dark, damp morning in Cork and saw an opening at Adelaide. Similar height, similar role.

Crows list manager Justin Reid was sitting out the front of his house in Melbourne when the message landed out of the blue on January 10, 2023. McAsey's decision hadn't snuck up on Adelaide; the 2019 No.6 pick had taken personal leave at the start of the pre-season, before making his mind up over Christmas that he would not return to the club.

Readymade key defenders are hard to find at that time of year. Keane wasn't considered an option until then. The key defender had returned home to Ireland 12 months earlier and never came back. He departed Collingwood with a year to run on his contract, much to the frustration of many at the Magpies, who saw enough across five senior games to know he had a future in the AFL.

Keane wanted to know if there was an opportunity to trial at West Lakes before the pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP) deadline in February. Reid told him he would come back to him within 24 hours, before quickly whipping out his laptop to watch vision straight away. He liked what he saw. He just needed to know more.

Tyler Brown had recently joined Adelaide via the SSP after being delisted by Collingwood months earlier, while ex-Pie Jack Madgen had signed with the Crows' SANFL team. Both additions helped Keane's case; they knew him and could help him settle in a city he had never visited before, let alone contemplated living in.

Adelaide had explored a move for another Irishman before Darragh Joyce headed to Brisbane. They had also scoured the state leagues. But two days after the first message, Reid and his long-time right-hand man – Crows national recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie – connected with Keane on a Zoom call 17,000km apart.

That night, Reid presented the case to the club's list management committee, including recruiter Richard Taylor and pro scout Alex Woodward. Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks spoke to Keane the next day, before the Crows doctor completed an online medical. That was completed by January 15, the same day a visa was arranged, five days after Keane's initial message. It moved that quick.

Adelaide didn't want the then 22-year-old to fly halfway across the world just for a trial. If he was coming, he was coming for the season. Keane was keen. Reid lodged the move over the phone with AFL player movement boss Ned Guy as he drove down to the Mornington Peninsula on January 20. A one-year deal was agreed to. Three days later, Keane landed in Adelaide for the first time in his life, just as the paperwork was completed in the AFL's system. He was back in the business.

So much has changed since then. Keane played the final five games of 2023 after being picked for the first time in a Showdown. He signed a two-year deal after that game, then went home in the off-season on a mission for more in 2024. Then he played 21 games last year to entrench himself in Adelaide's backline. This year, Keane has elevated his status from one of the Crows’ best defenders to one of the best backmen in the comp, culminating in a spot in the 44-man All-Australian squad.

But for all of 2022, Keane didn't plan on returning. He had his retirement fund taken out, as well as his superannuation. He was happy doing normal 21-year-old things with his mates, playing hurling and Gaelic Football. He was content. Until he wasn't.

"I didn't touch a footy while I was away for that 18 months. I was fully done with playing AFL; I never thought I was going to come back," Keane tells AFL.com.au ahead of Thursday night's qualifying final against Collingwood.

"I remember seeing that [Fischer McAsey article] and I remember looking up what height he was and I saw he was around my height. I was still looking at the AFL app back then and I then spoke to (former Collingwood player and countryman) Marty Clarke about it and he told me to reach out.

"I thought they might be on the lookout for a key defender. I never saw myself living in Adelaide, but I haven't looked back since. I was chatting to Marty Clarke back home and he told me that these opportunities don't come around too often. He advised me that I should be in the AFL. I thought I'd be stupid not to give it a second chance. I had grown and matured while I was at home for that 18 months."

Reid and Ogilvie, naturally, wanted to know exactly why Keane had left Collingwood, just after he started playing. They made their own calls, spoke to their vast network. Why would this time be different? They needed to understand what had changed before committing to him.

"I think they wanted to know why I wanted to come back, why I left in the first place and why (leaving) wasn't going to happen again. I had to convince them that I was here for the long haul and that I really wanted to pursue an AFL career," Keane says.

"I matured a lot while I was home. I think AFL is a great sport, it's a very well-run competition and I suppose the professionalism of it appealed. I was playing hurling and Gaelic Football back home and it is only amateur. When I was growing up, I didn't want to be an AFL player, but I certainly wanted to be a professional soccer player. So being a professional AFL player was as close as I was going to get.

"I could have definitely lived with myself (if I never came back) but I probably didn't think I was going to succeed to these levels that I am at that moment. I could have accepted that an AFL career maybe wasn't for me."

Clarke nudged Keane in the right direction. He represented Collingwood 73 times across two different stints in the famous black and white stripes. He returned home at 22 to play Gaelic Football before returning for another 27 games at the Pies. He knew the emotions Keane was grappling with. He also knew that heading back was worth it.

The now 37-year-old was working as a development coach in an AFL Ireland pathways program when Keane trialled at 18 and had kept in contact. Luke Towey, who spent two years on Gold Coast's list, also pushed him in the right direction. Clarke seldom misses a Collingwood match, regularly watches Keane and stays across all the latest footy news from the Emerald Isle.

"Marty is a really close friend of mine. He was always in contact with me, just about going back to the AFL. He is a really big Collingwood fan, and even if it wasn't going back to Collingwood, he was just happy for me to go back to the AFL," Keane says.

"When he was pushing me to get back to Australia and back on a list, I really took that on board and thought about it myself. He still messages me a fair bit, especially when we are playing against Collingwood. He keeps really interested. I think he wants Collingwood to win, but for me to best on ground (in the qualifying final)."

Keane played 20 VFL games across three years at Collingwood from 2019 to 2021, mostly amid the pandemic. Living on the other side of the world when global travel ground to a halt didn't help someone battling with homesickness.

The Magpies spent hundreds of hours teaching him the sport, developing him on the track, in the classroom and in the gym. The now 25-year-old knows Collingwood played an important role in developing him into the player he is today. But he says he needed to go home and grow up before he could get the most out of himself as a player.

"I look back now and think, 'what was I doing with myself?'. I probably thought I had it all figured out at Collingwood and not realising why I wasn't playing as much as I am now. I didn't even know the game back then, so I don't even know what I was expecting," he says.

"The stuff that I'm doing here to get my body right, doing touch and being a professional, which I wasn't at Collingwood because I didn't realise how much was needed to get to that level. I do miss that there is no Irish [community in Adelaide], but it has allowed me to be super professional with no distractions."

Collingwood circled back last year. They never stopped watching him. And they almost had him. Derek Hine, who is now Tasmania's head of recruiting after more than 20 years at the Magpies, tried to lure him back to the club for a second stint. Keane ultimately decided to stay at the Crows, signing a lucrative three-year deal, but telling Hine was the toughest call he had to make.

"It took me ages to call 'Dekka'," he says. "I remember talking to Marty Clarke about it and he told me I had to call him, but I kept putting it off because I didn't want to tell him. He was such a great person for giving me a chance at Collingwood and I was really close to him when I was at Collingwood as well. It took me a long time to ring him, but in the end I had to call him.

"Early days I had the feeling of heading back to Melbourne and back to the Irish community. I have lots of friends there. But then I started playing consistent footy, and I realised it was best for me to stay in Adelaide and focus on footy, because I came back out to play footy and not just have a good time. I thought it was best for me to stay in Adelaide."

Keane is now settled in South Australia, where he lives a five-minute walk from the club's headquarters in West Lakes with compatriot Karl Gallagher, who is yet to play for the Crows at the top level. Keane will eventually move home to Ireland, but right now he scratches the itch of home by playing hurling with his housemate in the park. They watch a lot of footy at home, cramming each week to catch up on teammates who have played the sport since Auskick.

"I watch a lot of footy. I love watching other key defenders like Jeremy McGovern and those types. Ben Keays has taught me how to be a professional; he has shown me what it takes since I got to the club. He has been more than happy to help, as has Reilly O'Brien," he says.

"I'm a big fan and love watching AFL and all the games each weekend. I watch a fair bit, four or five games a week, just a really big fan of the game. Not growing up with the game, it's a great game to watch. I'm definitely still learning and am a long way from figuring it all out completely."

When Keane went home last summer, Adelaide allowed him to play hurling and Gaelic Football for Cork and Mitchelstown. They know he needs that outlet and connection to home. Eight of his teammates - Jake Soligo, Josh Worrell, Riley Thilthorpe, Max Michalanney, Sam Berry, Hugh Bond, Zac Taylor and Billy Dowling - came to watch him play and spent the night in his hometown while travelling across Europe.

"I don't think I'd be able to be over here and play AFL without me playing hurling and football in the off-season," he says. "It just allows me to refuel and recharge and keep that in my system. Rather than coming April, May and June and be itching to play it and all of a sudden, I move home for a year just to play it. It is really important I get that in, so I don't get that itch in the middle of the season."

Keane will again return home to the south of Ireland this off-season. By then, he might have joined Tadhg Kennelly, Zach Tuohy, Mark O'Connor and Conor McKenna as the only Irish premiership players in VFL/AFL history.

He isn't looking past his old mob Collingwood just yet, but he is keeping an eye on how his local hurling and Gaelic Football teams are travelling. If they keep progressing at this rate, he will play for them again in October, once Adelaide's season is done.

If Adelaide wasn’t interested, Keane would still be on that side of the world, playing those two sports, working, surrounded by family and friends in Ireland. He would be happy, but not content. Instead, he is now one of the best intercepting defenders in Australia. The journey resumed via WhatsApp.