Former Tyrone footballer to make AFL debut this weekend

Mickey Harte would have liked him around last Sunday.

While speculation around Derry's Conor Glass making a move to Australia and AFL continue, a fellow Ulster man, who took the plunge in 2014, is about to make his first team debut. Conor McKenna is a former Tyrone minor star and joined Essendon, last October, after a starring role in his county's underage set-up. He is also the brother of senior player, Ryan McKenna. The player has made a huge impression on the coaches at the club and is now set to make his full debut this weekend against Richmond. The club made the announcement on their website last night, with development coach Paul Corrigan delighted at the teenager's progress in less than 12 months Down Under.

“He’s obviously crammed a lot in the time that he’s been here. He does more sessions than anyone else, he never misses a beat.”

McKenna is likely to begin his AFL career as a forward after impressing in the VFL this campaign, scoring 18 goals in just 15 games. The 19-year-old told the club website he's delighted to be drafted into the senior squad for the last few games of the season:

“The coach took me in yesterday about three o’clock after training." “Cora, who has been working with me all year, he just said ‘congratulations, you’re playing against Richmond this week. It’s just good to get a role now.” “In defence, it was not too bad, but then I went forward and the structure of the game is just hard to get used to but hopefully I’ll get it right now and come Saturday it’ll come to plan,

McKenna’s parents are flying out from Tyrone to attend Saturday night's match, while the club took a rather unusual way of announcing his big debut on Twitter last night. https://twitter.com/EssendonFC/status/636354908678189057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/EssendonFC/status/636359940999802880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw And eventually they got around to a very awkward looking McKenna getting the good news in front of his teammates https://twitter.com/EssendonFC/status/636367395121074176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw H/T Essendon