Irish AFL players

SSK

Flynn nearly decapitated a player in the SANFL at the weekend with a running bump. He got two weeks for it which was probably fair enough but it's a pity as it will slow his development a little. He's an absolute beast though so I'm sure Port won't be too disappointed that he's starting to impose himself on games physically.

As I said in the other thread, Hanley had a very good game in a poor Brisbane side at the weekend. He was playing as a permanent midfielder, which suits his game as he is able to roam around the field hunting the footy however he still has a lot of learning to do as regards the art of clearance winning and contested footy as Brisbane were totally flogged in the clearances by the likes of Ward, Scully, Treloar and the rest of the Giants' young guns.

Tuohy was ok for Carlton against the Hawks but he's miles off the form of last year. Unfortunately Clarke and Walsh appear to be just playing out the final year of their contracts at this stage. Mooney has been playing down back for the Collingwood reserves and doing ok but he may have plateaued at that level.

Frankie Lee

Hanley had a career best game at the weekend with 45 disposals and generally dominated the game.

bruschi

Frankie Lee wrote: »

Hanley had a career best game at the weekend with 45 disposals and generally dominated the game.

Saw that alright. Nearly set an AFL record with most distance playing the ball.

SSK

I've been at home for the last few weeks so haven't seen much of the action but from the highlights I've seen Hanley's performance last week was one for the ages. Superb stuff.

Lovely article on him today in The Age which is the best footy paper in Melbourne.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/pearce-hanley-the-pirate-of-roscommon--or-mayo-20140731-zyzdd.html

jackbhoy

SSK wrote: »

I've been at home for the last few weeks so haven't seen much of the action but from the highlights I've seen Hanley's performance last week was one for the ages. Superb stuff.

Lovely article on him today in The Age which is the best footy paper in Melbourne.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/pearce-hanley-the-pirate-of-roscommon--or-mayo-20140731-zyzdd.html

He has to be in contention for an All Australian berth this year.

I actually think, that despite the amazing stats, last week wasn't his best performance by a long shot. GC were so apathetic that he was allowed free reign. He has broken big games against top teams earlier where he got significant attention or was tagged by opposition, they were more impressive imo. Can't believe how bad GC were.

SSK

Ciaran Sheehan will make his debut for Carlton this weekend. Mick was highly complementary of him in his press conference this morning so here's hoping he gets a full game and gives a good account of himself. He'll most likely be playing a back flanker type role similar to Tuohy (who he could actually replace in the team given the latter's iffy form of late)

Theresalwaysone

SSK wrote: »

Ciaran Sheehan will make his debut for Carlton this weekend. Mick was highly complementary of him in his press conference this morning so here's hoping he gets a full game and gives a good account of himself. He'll most likely be playing a back flanker type role similar to Tuohy (who he could actually replace in the team given the latter's iffy form of late)

This is good news.

Tuohy has been meh lately but they seem to love him over there. Gushing over his kick. Hope the two lads can get in the team together, would be awesome to see.

bruschi

Personally I think Tuohy is being played out of position. I dont think he is suited to the last man lock down player on the opponents best inside forward. His main attribute is clearances and passing, whereas he is now effectively playing a tagging role. In some of the games I have seen of him, he has been up against Ballantyne, Dustin Martin, Puopolo amongst others, basically always up against the opponents best crumber or playmaker forward. I think he has done well, but if it were me, I'd prefer him to be more of a rebound player at half back, or at least not the last defender.

Looking forward to seeing Sheehan playing though, hope it goes well for him.

SSK

Nine disposals to half time for Sheehan, he looks very comfortable out there and his kicking is excellent. Two goal assists as well.

The Suns are woeful though and are putting literally no pressure on so it's a nice game to make his debut in.

SSK

The second half was painful to watch in general, just awful stuff from both sides.

Sheehan was quiet after half time, which is understandable in his first game. I think he got moved on to Aaron Hall and seemed to focus mainly on the defensive side of things after that. Overall a very good debut and I'd be surprised if he doesn't hold his spot for the remainder of the year.

Edit - keane2097, have you any inside word on whether Tommy Walsh is heading home at the end of the year? He seems to be playing very well in defence for the Swans reserves, will be interesting to see if he's offered a new contract.

keane2097

If he gets offered a new contract by Sydney he will stay. If he gets offered a contract by someone else it would depend on how much of an uproot and restart it would be, I would say 50/50 that he would stay in that case. Obv no contract and he will come home.

bruschi

Watched the Carlton game there. Poor game really, but a good one for Sheehan to start off in. He did well too. Very good kicking as would be expected. Looked a little awkward alright with his bouncing but again to be expected. Nothing that unusual really, especially when you see Murphy earlier messed up a bounce. Positive start for him tho. To be honest I thought he'd have been a bit quieter, playing a weak enough side and being defensive. But he pushed up well and was defensive when he needed to be. Commentators were very complimentary of him too.

Parawind

Bombers sign Connor McKenna!

http://m.essendonfc.com.au/news/2014-10-03/exciting-irishman-joins-essendon

bruschi

Eagles and Dockers have signed a couple of lads from Kildare too, Brophy and Hurley.

Frankie Lee

Massive loss for Kildare, Brophy should definitely make it while Hurley has serious natural talent but will need a bit of luck but if he stays injury free and develops a bit more consistency he can make it. Can't see Daniel Flynn returning too soon either.
Hurley is the 3rd player from a relatively small rural club in Johnstownbridge to make the move. Paul Cribben was the other.

klairondavis

Frankie Lee wrote: »

Can't see Daniel Flynn returning too soon either.

I hope he's not going back this time!

bruschi

klairondavis wrote: »

I hope he's not going back this time!

yeah that'll be it now anyway. at least he gave it a go and went a second time to try it. just didnt suit, and thats the way it is for some.

SSK

Not necessarily dead in the water yet according to Port

PORT Adelaide has granted Daniel Flynn additional leave from the club and the international rookie remains in Ireland with family.
Flynn requested additional leave citing homesickness at the start of 2015.
The club’s general manager of football Chris Davies says the club remains in contact with Flynn.
“Daniel has returned home to Ireland and the club has given him extra leave to be with his family following his request,” said Davies.
“We’ll remain in close contact with Daniel and his family and we aim to reach an outcome in the coming weeks.”

But his Twitter bio is pretty definitive IMO

Lifes simple, you make choices and you dont look back...

Johnstown Bridge, Kildare

He had a lot of potential so I can see why Port want to leave the door open but if his hearts not in it then there's not really much point.

Hinomaru

Apparently Tadhg Kennelly is actively recruiting Irish players to the AFL. There are no notable former GAA stars out there now but Kennelly is working on bringing a new generation of players to trials in Australia

SSK

Hinomaru wrote: »

Apparently Tadhg Kennelly is actively recruiting Irish players to the AFL. There are no notable former GAA stars out there now but Kennelly is working on bringing a new generation of players to trials in Australia

Yep, he's been holding European combines for elite talent for the last couple of years. On average maybe 2-3 Irish players would be recruited through this per year and you'd see as many coming back the other direction each year.

Ciaran Sheehan would certainly be considered a notable former GAA star, he's with Carlton. And while Pearce Hanley was very young when he originally came over he's a household name now and comfortably a top 50 player in the league.

bruschi

Hinomaru wrote: »

Apparently Tadhg Kennelly is actively recruiting Irish players to the AFL. There are no notable former GAA stars out there now but Kennelly is working on bringing a new generation of players to trials in Australia

he has been doing this since he retired in 2011. nothing new about it. and in those few years, I'd say there has been nearly 4 times as many players who have been signed up have left and returned home since. Very few make it. They trial up to 20 or 30 players, and maybe 3 or 4 might be offered contracts, and then they might only leave for a year or 2 anyway.

Hinomaru

bruschi wrote: »

he has been doing this since he retired in 2011. nothing new about it. and in those few years, I'd say there has been nearly 4 times as many players who have been signed up have left and returned home since. Very few make it. They trial up to 20 or 30 players, and maybe 3 or 4 might be offered contracts, and then they might only leave for a year or 2 anyway.

I understand its not anything new. I know he started it in 2011 but was suggesting the the whole Irish experiment was over as most everyone out there has come back

bruschi

Hinomaru wrote: »

I understand its not anything new. I know he started it in 2011 but was suggesting the the whole Irish experiment was over as most everyone out there has come back

I dont get your original post so.

Hinomaru wrote: »

Apparently Tadhg Kennelly is actively recruiting Irish players to the AFL. There are no notable former GAA stars out there now but Kennelly is working on bringing a new generation of players to trials in Australia

There are still players going out there every year. This year alone 3 players have signed contracts with clubs. It was a similar number last year, and the year before. There are still new players going every year and I dont see any change for the past 5+ years in either players going or returning.

klairondavis

http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/news/2015-01-30/daniel-flynn-to-stay-in-ireland

jackbhoy

Hanley out for 12 weeks.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/brisbane-lions-midfielder-pearce-hanley-out-for-three-months-20150130-1322sg.html

huddler

Gone to 18 weeks now. Frustrating for him. Would have got off the leash this year with so many others demanding a tag at the Lions. Hanley, Rocky, Beams, Rich, Zorko....even Christensen, who do you tag?! They can all hurt you. Interesting year ahead at the Gabba.

SSK

huddler wrote: »

Gone to 18 weeks now. Frustrating for him. Would have got off the leash this year with so many others demanding a tag at the Lions. Hanley, Rocky, Beams, Rich, Zorko....even Christensen, who do you tag?! They can all hurt you. Interesting year ahead at the Gabba.

It really is awful luck and it's amazing how something so serious (in both hips!) can have gone undetected for so long. He is generally a quick healer so hopefully he'll be back come the middle of the year. Plenty of time to have some brotherly bonding in the rehab room!

Rich is (or at least was, before Hanley's injury) slated to play off half back so my guess would be that Hanley would have gotten the primary tag with Beams the second choice and a defensive forward on Rich. I have them just outside the 8 as they'll struggle to kick goals against the top sides and Patfull is an enormous loss in defence.

SSK

Very nice interview with Paddy Brophy in The West Australian yesterday

He had 20 touches in the last WAFL warm up game last weekend and from reports was very impressive. I'm quite surprised at his rate of development as I would have expected him to be playing WAFL reserves for at least a few weeks but looks like he'll be playing in the league team this weekend.

bruschi

SSK wrote: »

Very nice interview with Paddy Brophy in The West Australian yesterday

He had 20 touches in the last WAFL warm up game last weekend and from reports was very impressive. I'm quite surprised at his rate of development as I would have expected him to be playing WAFL reserves for at least a few weeks but looks like he'll be playing in the league team this weekend.

I've been keeping a bit of an eye on him, or as much as one can when in Ireland. Mainly through bigfooty and a couple of friends in Perth who saw him play for East Perth. Only has 4 or so games under his belt but is starting for their firsts, so its a really good start and his level of play is above others who are projected to be making the squad and are in the WAFL. The Eagles are down a few players already in the backline, and its not as if their half backs are anything exceptional, so he could well get a run out late on in the season when they will inevitably be out of finals contention.

shanemkelly

Carlton's Ciaran Byrne getting a start against the Bombers on Saturday at the MCG! Apparently he's done well in the VFL so hopefully he'll get the AFL CV off to a good start too...