CONOR Nash once looked destined for a rugby career in the famous green shirt of Ireland, plying his trade as a promising young full-back and drawing serious interest from Dublin powerhouse Leinster. But he now looks destined for a long career in the AFL.  

The 24-year-old's AFL career was at the crossroads after playing just 10 of a possible 39 games across 2020 and 2021. But after turning out in all but one game during a breakout 2022 under new coach Sam Mitchell, Nash became just the 10th Irishman to reach 50 games in VFL/AFL history.

Now Nash has risen to another level in the early stages of his seventh season since leaving a promising rugby union and Gaelic football career to pursue a foreign code in a foreign land. 

With Hawthorn trading away Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O'Meara last October, there were fears the club would be smashed around the ball in 2023. But that hasn't happened. Hawthorn was ranked last for clearances in 2022, but is currently ranked fourth for clearances differential and ninth for clearances. 

Will Day has thrived on more midfield time, James Worpel has returned to close to his 2019 best and Jai Newcombe has continued his rise. But it is the County Meath product Nash who has been the biggest bonus.   

Only five players in the competition have had a bigger influence than Nash on their team winning a centre bounce clearance in 2023. And those names include past and potential Brownlow medallists, club captains and big-name free agents. 

In a sign of the growing trust the Hawks have in Nash, Mitchell has opted to use him ahead of renowned tagger Finn Maginness in key midfield match-ups during the past three games.

The results have been profound. 

Nash has spent time making Marcus Bontempelli, Jordan Dawson and Tom Green accountable at different stages in games in this period, while proving he can still find plenty of leather. 

Bontempelli was expected to celebrate his 200th game in style last Saturday, but the Western Bulldogs skipper was forced to fight for every disposal in the first half at Marvel Stadium, before finishing with a season-low 19 touches. 

With the 198cm, 94kg Irishman following him around Docklands, the four-time All-Australian couldn't expose his Hawks opponent inside 50 when he pushed forward at times to try to shake the match-up, meaning it was a frustrating start to what was supposed to be a game to remember.

Nash's breakout games

After averaging 12.6 disposals and 5.8 contested possessions across the first 54 games of his career, the Hawthorn midfielder has more than doubled those tallies in the past three weeks.

Nash hadn't collected more than 24 disposals in a game before round five this year, but has since collected 31 disposals and 18 contested possessions, 28 and 15, and 26 and nine. 

Between rounds five and seven, Nash has averaged 28.3 disposals, 14 contested possessions, 6.3 tackles, 5.3 clearances, 55.6 pressure points and 15.7 AFL Player Ratings points. 

While Geelong premiership veteran Zach Tuohy is edging closer to breaking the games record of Irish icon Jim Stynes, and Conor McKenna and Mark O'Connor have been good but not great to start 2023, Nash is staking a claim to be the next Irish star in the AFL. 

In a different life, Nash could have been preparing to play for Ireland in the World Cup in France in October. But instead of getting ready for pool games against South Africa, Scotland, Tonga and Romania in Bordeaux, Nantes and Paris, the Irishman is emerging as an unlikely key component of the rebuild project at Waverley Park.