New lifestyle in Perth will be great for us - states Aaron McEneff

The 27-year-old has signed for A-League side Perth Glory and he and his family are excited about their future Down Under.

McEneff was quick to praise his partner Ellen, who he admits takes care of a lot of things behind the scenes.

“Ellen is great to be honest and as we have been together for a long, long time and she has fully supported me in everything that I have wanted to do and likewise I fully support her on things that she wants to do,” he stated.

“But yeah it’s good to have that person alongside you who is just as excited as you about jumping and moving along with you in terms of moving away and moving to different countries and cities.

“She is also very good in terms of doing paperwork stuff and things like that, so when those things are needed sorted she is really good with all that. I see a few sentences and I’m bored and go onto the next page, but she’s different and goes through everything.

“But she too is really looking forward to moving to Australia, as it’s a completely different lifestyle for her and in fairness for all of us as a young family, but let’s be honest it’s not going to be a bad one and it’s massively exciting.”

The former St Columb’s College student admitted that their new lifestyle in Perth is something all the family is looking forward to and especially once Glory’s Head of Recruitment Andy Keogh showed them a few properties they could be living in during their time in Australia, as they had a swimming pool in the garden.

Until the move happens, the 27-year-old will be doing a fitness plan to ensure he’s ready for the new A-League season, which gets underway in October and he admitted playing regularly and the club's ambitions for the future were big factors for making the switch Down Under.

“I spoke to Andy Keogh and the manager Ruben Zadkovich and they are going to get a programme sent over to do myself over the next few weeks while the visa stuff is getting processed, so I’m not actually quite sure when I will get out to Australia.

"I’m sure it will be in a few weeks, so the minute everything is sorted out it will be just a case of booking a flight. I think with the season starting in October I would hope to get out to Australia in August at some point.

“Andy has sent me over a few samples of the places that me and my family could live in and I think it will be a case of going out there maybe stay in a hotel for hopefully not too long and then go and view a few places and see what areas are available and stuff like that and take it from there.

“Look as its the other side of the world. I don’t know the areas and I’m sure the people at the club will give me a good bit of advice on where to stay and then I think we’ll just pick a place whenever we all get there. However I have to say the examples that Andy did send weren’t too bad, with swimming pools in back gardens, so yeah it isn’t too bad.

"Football is about playing every week, you can do all the training you want, but as a player you want to be playing in matches every week and that's sort of what I want to get back to doing.

"From speaking to the club and speaking to the manager, briefly, he came in late season and the club are showing real ambition to go and have a right crack this year and it's exciting for me to go and be part of that and hopefully go and achieve success with the club."

The former Institute youngster has already been chatting to family and friends who live in Australia and he knows that will help all the family settle into life a lot quicker.

"I know a few people from Derry who are living out there and they have been in contact with both me and Ellen about the move and obviously meeting up with them whenever we're out there," he explained.

"Also on my mother's side there are cousins who live in Perth as well, my Grandad's brother and his wife moved out years ago and they are settled there now, so we have got family and friends in Perth.

"Whenever you are moving you always have that wee feeling about 'how are we going to settle into the area', but I'm sure we'll be alright.

"The both of us are grand with getting on with people and we're the type that are excited about meeting new people, but yeah it's nice that there's an Irish community out there and I won't be surprised if we're walking down the street in Perth and someone says 'Oh alright I haven't seen you's in years', because there are so many Derry people living in Australia."