GAA players going abroad? GAA to AFL

dabossman

Interesting seeing players turn down the AFL, with the international rules series coming up wonder what the offical stats are for players there who are Irish and left GAA for the AFL, anyone any idea

Clareman

dabossman wrote: »

Interesting seeing players turn down the AFL, with the international rules series coming up wonder what the offical stats are for players there who are Irish and left GAA for the AFL, anyone any idea

Google is your friend for stuff like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_VFL/AFL_players_born_outside_of_Australia
There's actually far more English born players playing over there, I know the population is a lot bigger there.

Clareman

Clareman wrote: »

Google is your friend for stuff like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_VFL/AFL_players_born_outside_of_Australia
There's actually far more English born players playing over there, I know the population is a lot bigger there.

Different circumstances as well though.
Those other lads would have lived there from a young age and got into the AFL by actually playing Aussie Rules.

There might come a day where we have a lad over there who's moved there because of his Aussie Rules skill set then having similar ones.
There was a lad taken from Denmark recently who would have played with the Irish lads on the European team.

68Murph68

Someone on the AFL forum probably knows more but the number is fairly tiny.

I saw a stat a while back that there has been a total of 37 Irish AFL players since 2002 and there is currently 6 players signed to clubs.

I think this included players who signed but didnt necessarily even play a "senior" game.

Not 100% though.

When you consider the average length of time players spend there its not as if its much of an issue.

keane2097

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Different circumstances as well though.
Those other lads would have lived there from a young age and got into the AFL by actually playing Aussie Rules.

There might come a day where we have a lad over there who's moved there because of his Aussie Rules skill set then having similar ones.
There was a lad taken from Denmark recently who would have played with the Irish lads on the European team.

Yeah the European team had a good number from Ireland, similar from England and a bunch of Scandies if I remember correctly. Was a bit surprised at the Scandies being involved, seems a bit random.

68Murph68 wrote: »

Someone on the AFL forum probably knows more but the number is fairly tiny.

I saw a stat a while back that there has been a total of 37 Irish AFL players since 2002 and there is currently 6 players signed to clubs.

I think this included players who signed but didnt necessarily even play a "senior" game.

Not 100% though.

When you consider the average length of time players spend there its not as if its much of an issue.

As far as I recall the players over there at the minute are:

Zach Tuohy (Laois & Carlton)
Pearse Hanley (Mayo & Brisbane Lions)
Niall McKeever (Armagh & Brisbane Lions)
Tommy Walsh (Kerry & Swans)
Caolan Mooney (Down and Collingwood)
Marty Clarke (Down and Collingwood)
Setanta O'Halpin (Cork and North Melbourne)

Paul Cribben from Kildare is the latest player to come back home. He was playing for Collingwood as well but never got anywhere near the firsts as far as I know.

bruschi

keane2097 wrote: »

Yeah the European team had a good number from Ireland, similar from England and a bunch of Scandies if I remember correctly. Was a bit surprised at the Scandies being involved, seems a bit random.



As far as I recall the players over there at the minute are:

Zach Tuohy (Laois & Carlton)
Pearse Hanley (Mayo & Brisbane Lions)
Niall McKeever (Armagh & Brisbane Lions)
Tommy Walsh (Kerry & Swans)
Caolan Mooney (Down and Collingwood)
Marty Clarke (Down and Collingwood)
Setanta O'Halpin (Cork and North Melbourne)

Paul Cribben from Kildare is the latest player to come back home. He was playing for Collingwood as well but never got anywhere near the firsts as far as I know.

yup, and Chrissy McKaigue left Sydney last year too without making an impression either. Cribbin got into a bit of bother in a late night incident that wouldnt have helped his case. All players above have played an AFL game, but Mooney will find it hard to crack on at Collingwood, despite his good showing in his debut last year.

this thread could probably be merged with the recent ludicrous compensation thread as it covers much the same topics. But as I said on that, the outrage and the exaggeration of players flocking abroad is just that. Players come back with life and physical experience, which will be a massive help for their resumption of GAA.

Pighead

Big day for Louth's Ciaran 'Casey' Byrne who makes his AFL Senior debut for Carlton at 4am tomorrow morning (Irish time). Still only 20 he seems to be impressing the Carlton coaches with his workrate and attitude. Will line up alongside Laois's Zack Touhy. Ciaran Sheehan is at the club too but I think he's injured at the minute.

It's on ESPN if anybody's interested.

LiamNeeson

It hasn't always been the AFL, Dermot McNicholl of Derry played in the lower division in the early 90s as did Anthony Tohill.

Niall McKeever is from Antrim by the way, last time I had heard of him he had moved back here