NINE years after packing up his life in Ireland, Conor Nash can now officially call Australia home after the Hawthorn midfielder became a citizen at a ceremony in Melbourne on Monday.

Nash was born in the United States and is an American citizen, grew up in County Meath in the north-west of Ireland and is now a citizen of three countries.

The 27-year-old played 29 games across his first five seasons at the Hawks, but has been a permanent fixture since Sam Mitchell took over, playing 91 games since the start of 2022 for a total of 120 in the AFL. Mitchell attended the ceremony with Nash at the Malvern Town Hall.

Hawthorn first contacted Nash when he was 15 and still pursuing rugby union and Gaelic Football back home. They rewarded him with a five-year contract in 2024 that locks him in at the Hawks until the end of 2029.

Nash will return home later in the year to marry his Australian girlfriend, Grace Ireland, almost a decade after answering Hawthorn’s call to try a foreign game in a foreign land.

“This country has been very, very good to me,” Nash told AFL.com.au. 

“It’s afforded me a lot of opportunities. I could have played professional sport at home, but I think the places I’ve been to in Australia, the people I’ve met, especially my fiancée Grace.

“It is a really good country. It really is set up for the people. The people are very similar to Irish people, down to earth, if you’re good to them, they are good to you. 

“Going forward I’m going to be here for a number of years and there are probably going to be more opportunities post football over here. I want to become a citizen of the country.”

The citizenship process was more convoluted than it should have been after Nash unintentionally overstayed his initial two-year visa in 2019. He wasn’t allowed back into the country until he sorted out the required paperwork. 

That stressful customs incident was sorted ahead of the start of the 2020 pre-season but led to a change of visa after Nash secured a global talent visa, then became a permanent resident last February to put him on a path to citizenship. 

“I went through the whole rigmarole when I had that stuff up in 2019 where my visa had lapsed and no one knew about it until I got to the airport. I go to the airport to go on a lads holiday in Greece and Italy and went to go through the gate and they wouldn’t let me through. They said: This is pretty serious Conor, your visa has been expired for six months. I had seen all the shows, so I knew it was serious. He told me I was leaving Australia tonight no matter what,” Nash said.

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“I got onto the club, called our lawyer, who was phenomenal, and it went from there. I was leaving Australia knowing I couldn’t come back unless this was sorted out, so on the holiday was getting documents from back home, police checks and all that while Grace was preparing to move from Sydney. I put my hand up and said sorry we stuffed this up, I wasn’t trying to hide anything, I played 14 games that year, so I was on the TV, but that’s how they get you on the way out. 

“From there I had to serve a penalty period and start the process again. There was an exclusion period. You need two years of work lined up from the date you submit it, which for me in this game I was only getting two-year contracts, so you’re trying to work with the club to try and get the visa. In the end we scrapped that and went for a global talent visa, which is very rare, they don’t give many of them out, you need to show that you’re a benefit to Australian society. Very lucky that that came through in February 2024. Then when the PR [permanent resident] comes through you have to be on that for a year before you can apply for citizenship.”

For a long time, Nash wasn’t sure if this was going to work. The sport, not the country. He spent much more time playing for Box Hill in places like Williamstown, Port Melbourne and Werribee, than Hawthorn across his first five years out here. 

But Mitchell saw something in him that others didn’t. Or hadn’t seen in Irishmen in the AFL. First it worked in the VFL in 2021, then it started showing at AFL level in 2022 before Nash finished third in the 2023 Peter Crimmins Medal.

“The end of 2021 when the whole changeover was happening and I played some genuine games in the midfield. I was starting to just find my niche, work out how to use my weapons more. But still I felt a little bit fraudulent because it was so foreign playing midfield. Your best players play in there: we had Jaeger [O’Meara], we had Tommy [Mitchell], Liam Shiels, and the guys that had gone before were just superstars. I didn’t feel comfortable,” he said.

“Sam’s influence at Box Hill was huge. He said: it’s not going to work if we keep going down this route and, thankfully, he made the move. He took a punt and said: we need to squeeze the lemon more here because we don’t think we’re getting what we can out of you. I was thinking Irish boys never play inside, they play half-back, they play wing, it won’t work. 

“From there, it was 2023 when it took off with the two older fellas going. Me, Daysy, Worps and Newcombe got together and that’s when I really felt like here we go. That was my best year and when I really felt I was in for the long haul here if we played our cards right. Even though I was on two-year deals and it wasn’t working early, I was never going to quit before I was told to leave. That was one thing [Hawks list manager] Mark McKenzie told me from the very start, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work, but just keep going until someone taps you on the shoulder and says, ‘That’s it’.”

Four Irishmen have become premiership players in the AFL, including Geelong tagger/defender Mark O’Connor, who fulfilled a lifelong dream earlier this month after helping his hometown Dingle win the All-Ireland title for the first time. 

Nash praised the Cats for allowing O’Connor the opportunity to remain in Ireland and play Gaelic Football for an extra two weeks after Geelong returned for pre-season training, something which would have been unfathomable pre-pandemic. 

“I think it’s huge,” he said. “He said when he first came over he thought professional sport was so cutthroat, and it is, but Geelong really opened his eyes to caring about him and looking after him as a person, which we’ve seen here at Hawthorn where if guys have things on in their life the club works with you on it. The clubs that do that really well are the ones that are successful. 

“Mark was similar to me when he went ahead (Gaelic Football) and played a number of years ago without telling them. I remember the leaders and ‘Clarko’ [Alastair Clarkson] saying just work with us on it. It has worked out beautifully for Mark. 

“They are so hard to win the club championships – you are eligible for two teams: your club and your county. The county is like the AFL, but the club is where you’re born and bred, like the old VFL. It is the boys next door on your street in the suburbs, that’s who you’re playing with and you can’t change teams. For him to win and be the best club in Ireland is huge.”

With Hawthorn superstar Will Day missing the first half of the season due to a shoulder reconstruction, and James Worpel moving to Geelong as a free agent, Hawthorn will require more from Nash than ever before if they are going to win a 14th flag in 2026.