A beautiful moment between GWS defender Connor Idun and his long-lost family has been captured during Seven’s post-match coverage of the Giants’ stunning upset of reigning AFL premiers Collingwood.
Idun was born in England, but went to school in Geelong, where he was drafted out of the Falcons in 2018.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: GWS star reunites with father after 10 years.
Stream analysis, local footy and the biggest moments free on 7plus 
Since then, the 23-year-old has played 69 games at AFL level for the Giants. Of his first 68, Idun’s father had seen none of those — not live anyway.
In fact, not only had Zac Idun not been to one of his son’s games — he hadn’t even been in the same country as him for over a decade.
Connor was catching up with his dad, and brother Chris, for the first time in over 10 years when Brian Taylor stumbled across the beautiful moment during Roaming Brian.
“This is my dad, Zac, and brother, Chris. They’ve come over from England, so I haven’t actually seen them for probably over 10 years. First time seeing each other,” Idun told Taylor.
Idun’s father said they had been apart for a host of reasons.
“It’s been a while, because of lockdown and all sorts of stuff, I couldn’t get here as quickly as I wanted to,” Zac Idun said.
“But this is the first time I’ve seen him playing for the Giants.”
The proud dad said he was overcome with emotion seeing his son run out against the Magpies.
“He’s really, really calm. But I have to have absolutely honest; I was upstairs, and when he ran on the pitch, I just burst into tears,” Zac said.
“It was just so much emotion and so much pride.
“But not just him — with the rest of the teammates as well. It’s been really good to see him bond with all the other guys. Watching it from afar, you see him grow from just joining the team, and then becoming a man, and then becoming a leader as well — it’s really very, very impressive.
“I’m very proud of him.”
Connor’s brother, Chris, added: “It’s pretty special. So proud of him.
“Ten years, I haven’t seen him. Last time I saw him, he was playing for Drysdale or something like that, running through people — and he’s still doing that.
“We were supporting from afar, keeping in touch with the games. It’s so good to see him live today. Incredible performance from the team.”
Zac, whose Facebook profile says he is 60 years old, quipped that he thinks he could still beat his son in a time trial.
“You know how they do this two-kilometre run? I still think I can beat him. That’s the one thing I want to do, I want to race around that track,” he said with a laugh.
“If it happens, you’ll know, because I (will have had) a heart attack!”
