Irish recruit Conor McKenna will take away some valuable lessons from after a promising debut in Saturday’s NAB Challenge game. 

The agile Irishman was thankful for the opportunity to play his first senior game after joining the club at the end of 2014. 

“It was good after probably four months of pre-season to finally get a game,” said McKenna

“It’s my third real game, so it’s just good to get a run out with the lads.”

McKenna has impressed coaches and players in his short-time at the club, showing an unwavering dedication to learning the skills required to play the game.

Despite it only being his third game of AFL Football, Coaches were confident that McKenna’s natural ability would serve him well during the game. 

“(The Coaches) just said use my speed and agility, that’s the main thing I’m good at,” 

“They said to just take the game on when you get a chance.”

McKenna showed glimpses of this exciting speed able to break through the St.Kilda defence on several occasions. 

However, the Irishman will surely be hitting the rulebook this week after innocently giving away two consecutive 50m penalties.

“At home we don’t have to give the ball back to the ref, so I just dropped the ball and that was a 50m penalty,”

“The second one (the umpire) blew the whistle and I thought he meant play-on,”

“I won’t be making that mistake again.”

McKenna finished the game with six possessions, including three marks and one tackle in what is hopefully the first of many encouraging performances for the young recruit.