Sydney Swans defender Tadhg Kennelly went back to his roots today when he caught up with players from the Ireland Warriors.

The Warriors are Ireland’s natonal team and are competing in the 2011 AFL International Cup.

Kennelly said it was great to see so many of his fellow countrymen following in his footsteps and taking to Australian football. 

“The game itself has really grown at home, there is about eight teams actually playing the game there,” Kennelly told SwansTV. 

“I’ll never forget where I came from and I understand how difficult it is for these guys with that oval shaped ball, and you can see sometimes when they are playing and training just how hard it is for them being used to the round ball.

“Good on them for trying and I think it’s a great initiative from the AFL.”

The Warriors will join all the other competing teams from the International Cup in a parade of nations during half time of the Swans clash with St Kilda on Sunday at ANZ Stadium.

Kennelly said a key focus for the Swans in Sunday’s clash against St Kilda at would be the team’s trademarks of defensive pressure and contested football.

“It’s huge. We’ve got to get back to our trademark. We've got to get back to what we are good at as a team - our defensive pressure, our tackling, and get back to winning the contested football.

“It was quite embarrassing as a club and as a team the way we performed last weekend. It’s all about getting our trademark back against St Kilda."

Kennelly admitted he’d struggled to produce his best form in recent weeks but was hopeful of turning it around.

“It’s been a hard couple of weeks for me. I’ve just got to get my belief back and my confidence," he said. 

“It makes things a lot easier when we’re all playing for each other and we’re not worrying about our individual performance, and I think that’s probably what happened a small bit against Richmond."