Ray Connellan used to drive two hours to training and two hours back to college in the Irish harbour city of Galway. He would arrive home close to midnight, stiff and sore from the time on the road, before having to rise first thing the next morning for class. And then he would repeat the cycle all over again. He knew it wasn’t the life he wanted to lead.

For the highly rated Gaelic footballer, who was considered one of the brightest young prospects in the Irish code, the urge to be a professional athlete was simply too difficult to resist. If he didn’t take a chance on a foreign sport in a foreign land, he’d regret the wasted opportunity in old age no matter what he achieved on home soil.

“I think anyone who’s as into sport as I was back home, really wants to see where they are against the elite and that was one of the main motivations for coming over here,” Connellan told saints.com.au on Tuesday.

“When you come over here you realise what a professional team looks like. So there was that side of it where I was sort of experimenting to see how I’d go against them (elite athletes), but then there’s just the fact I want to play professional sport.

“I think it’s just too good an opportunity to turn down, you need to just take a chance on these opportunities while you still can. In ten years’ time, I’m not going to be able to play football, so I need to try and make the most of opportunities when they fall in your lap, so they don’t slip by.”

While Connellan was aware of our code, he’d never watched a minute of it or even contemplated a switch until spending time with former Brisbane Lions convert, Colm Begley, during the International Rules Series at the end of 2015, where he was one of the youngest members of the home squad.

But now, after less than three months inside Linen House Centre, Connellan has rapidly developed a love affair with the Australian game that rivals his first love of Gaelic.

“I’ll admit I knew absolutely nothing about AFL up until November 2015 – like literally hadn’t watched a game or saw a footy – and the more I’ve played and learned about it, the more I love the game,” Connellan said.

“It’s now up there with Gaelic football and really pushing it for how much I enjoy the game, so there’s that side of it now too that I just enjoy it so much.”

Irish recruits, Ray Connellan (left) and Darragh Joyce, compete at a training session in Seaford.

Shifting from an amateur landscape to a full-time environment hasn’t been a difficult transition. In fact, Connellan has relished the smorgasbord of resources at his disposal and the structured life of a professional athlete. The meetings aren’t monotonous, neither is the grind of pre-season. After all, he desperately wants to be here.

“Back home I’d be in college and then go and train in the evenings a couple of times a week. Getting over here has been so good having the routines, you’re in at the club every day and you’re day is structured,” he said.

“I’m now used to getting up every day at 6 am, getting on the road, grabbing a coffee on the way through, then straight into meetings and training and playing football in nice weather. It doesn’t get much better does it?”

Highly regarded for his professionalism and his thirst to improve every day, Connellan has thoroughly enjoyed the ability to see his progress in real-time through a variety of different metrics that help push him towards new territory each session and each week.

“You just get to see your improvement, and your improvement is a lot clearer than it would be back home because everything is monitored,” he said.

“If you go out and have a good session you’ve actually got the data there to see that you’ve improved or you know how many touches you’ve got in a training session or how many km’s you’re covering or what speed you’re hitting.

“That’s something that’s been cool to watch because I considered myself to be pretty fit back home, but now you’re discovering that there is another level completely.

“For me now, I haven’t set any boundaries on where I can get to, so it’s just going to be interesting to see how fit and how far you can push yourself and what you can achieve.”

And while the boundaries have now changed, along with the dimensions and goal posts, there is little doubt Connellan will give himself the best chance to succeed in our game. It's the only way he knows.