'Torn by guilt' - Sarah Rowe on feeling of swapping AFLW for LGFA
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Rowe has shone for Collingwood in Australia since leaving the world of Gaelic football in 2018
Former Mayo LGFA star Sarah Rowe has opened up on the feeling of Irish players ‘torn by the feeling of guilt’ in swapping AFL for Gaelic football.
The Kilmoremoy clubwoman in Gaelic football has shown she can excel in a myriad of codes.
Whether it be her stellar performances in the Green and Red across her six seasons, where Mayo made four national finals, or her soccer skills with Castlebar Celtic in the FAI Women’s Cup and A-League glory with Central Coast Mariners, and everything in between, she has shown her talent and then some.
However, after trading the O’Neill’s for the oval in 2018, signing with Collingwood, she has been a sensation, making 75 appearances for the Magpies.
She has made herself at home in Melbourne, becoming a fixture in midfield.
However, speaking on Off the Ball, Rowe spoke on the pangs of homesickness felt by those Irish faces trutting their stuff on foreign shores, as well as the ‘guilt’ some feel for playing AFL over Gaelic football.
“A lot of players come out to AFLW and are excited by the opportunity, but are torn by the feeling of guilt and leaving GAA and leaving their family and leaving the country that they know and coming to the other side of the world.
“With Gaelic football, it's built us, it's who we are, it's what we represent, it's our family, it's our friends, it's really close to the bone. It's what we have grown up loving, whether we wanted to or not; we all love it, and AFLW is the sport that we had to grow to love, that we had to learn.
“It doesn't sit as deep as what GAA does to us because obviously, blood is thicker than water,” Rowe surmised. “With that comes a level of ‘I should be at home playing GAA’ or ‘I should be with my family’.
“Those feelings do come up, and then the other side of your mind says to you, ‘I'm in another country exploring, I'm learning a new sport, I'm being challenged in a professional environment, and it is my job.’ It's just that conflicting feeling, I think that we have all felt at one time or another.”