saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\nAAA<\/p>\n
Sydney Swans teammates Paris McCarthy and Zipporah \u201cZippy\u201d Fish are used to doing detailed analysis on opponents each week in the AFLW; they just never expected to be doing it on each other.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the friends will collide for their countries. Fish will represent Australia and McCarthy for Ireland at a sold-out North Sydney Oval for the first AFLW international match.<\/p>\n
![\"Swans](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2ff7187420d52b3401dc768d3851f72625b8aa0c.jpeg\")
Swans pair Paris McCarthy (left) and Zippy Fish will square off in a historic clash between Ireland and Australia at North Sydney Oval on Saturday.Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n
The pair have been reflecting on the long and often challenging journey they have taken to represent their countries.<\/p>\n
Fish grew up in the remote small town of Newman in Western Australia\u2019s Pilbara region. McCarthy\u2019s childhood was spent in the rural town of Castleisland, in County Kerry, Ireland.<\/p>\n
Despite growing up on opposite sides of the world, McCarthy and Fish remain deeply connected to the beautiful small towns that shaped them as elite footballers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I do go out on Saturday, that will be in the back of my head that, for me, yes, I\u2019m representing Ireland, but I am also representing Castleisland, where I came from,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I was always given the opportunity to play at a high level at whatever I did; on Saturday, that\u2019ll be there in my mind: that I\u2019m going out and bringing that flair from Castleisland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fish spent years kicking a football on the oval in Newman with no expectation of being a professional athlete, but her talent proved impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n
After being drafted by the Swans, Fish and her father Troy drove from Perth to Sydney, frequently stopping in towns along the way, giving her an insight into the diversity of Australia she wants to represent on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve met a lot of great people along the way, and they\u2019ve all done a lot for me, so I\u2019ll be playing for everyone I know, really,\u201d Fish said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s mainly one of the reasons that I play footy is to try and be an inspiration to those young girls, because I was that little girl one time. I just hope to inspire young girls and see them live out their dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Zippy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fb178212499c66421312a4018fe8326f6c6f5820.jpeg\")
Zippy Fish in action for the SwansGetty Images<\/p>\n
There are 46 Irish players on AFLW lists with 30 others who have previously played in the league.<\/p>\n
Despite the well-trodden path of her compatriots in the league, McCarthy now feels she is coming to grips with AFLW, having starred in Gaelic football in Ireland. She also played a season of top league college basketball with East Tennessee in the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou come to a new country to play a new sport and you go from a big fish to the smallest fish,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do sometimes think, \u2018If I went back to Ireland, would I just go back to being a big fish again?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s part of being a professional athlete. It\u2019s not always going to be fun and I think that\u2019s what I like about it: every day I can get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside figuring out how to keep Fish, the 2025 AFLW Rising Star, quiet on the field, McCarthy has spent a long time thinking about what singing the Irish national anthem (Amhr\u00e1n na bhFiann) at North Sydney Oval far from home will mean to her and her teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve thought about the anthem every day this week; I think that\u2019s the one thing that will put me into the game and thinking about going out and giving it everything,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the national anthem means a lot to every Irish person and I haven\u2019t heard it in four years, too, to get the opportunity to stand alongside those girls for Ireland and listen to it will definitely be something really special and something I\u2019ll remember for the rest of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Save<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\nFrom our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-834948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Jonathan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/8a92e85b45a90780f82a70f6bc716cdfce4ba7c1.png\")
Save<\/p>\n