Today's Indo

tonton zola

Decent article about Irish players moving to the AFL.

Gave a balanced enough view I thought.

As a Carlow man, I know what it's like to lose the most promising player in a county. Brendan Murphy was one of the best minors in Ireland, never mind Carlow. A county like ours can't afford to lose players like this, we only get them once every 10-20 years unlike bigger counties who seem to have a production line of young talent.

But having said that, I agree with every player who gives it a lash. I would (if I wasn't a skinny Junior B footballer!)

MrJoeSoap

I T was a certainty that Australian rules clubs would crank up their player trawl in Ireland, but less expected was the frightening air of resignation that has greeted the development.

Reports of a new recruiting network for these shores have confirmed what we knew all along: the Aussies are targeting our best young Gaelic footballers to help their cash-strapped clubs.

The latest plan is simple; scout youngsters from 14 upwards and sign them on the cheap in the future. The brains behind the project is former Aussie Rules footballer, Ricky Nixon, one of the sport's leading agents who is proposing to charge clubs about Aus$30,000 (€19,000) a year for access to his scouting information. For AFL clubs, this is manna from heaven. For GAA clubs, it is a recipe for disaster.

Don't be fooled by the spin that only a few Irish guys are making the journey Down Under, the number of departures has increased significantly since the international rules series was scrapped two years ago. Indeed, after Martin Clarke's extraordinary breakthrough at Collingwood -- he won an AFL Rising Star nomination in just his second game -- the scouts are falling over themselves to land the next Irish wonder-kid.

Armagh have lost Kevin Dyas, the player heralded as the new Kieran McGeeney; Mayo have waved goodbye to playmaker-in-chief Pierce Hanley, a youngster John O'Mahony was looking to build a team around; and Carlow powerhouse Brendan Murphy has moved to the Sydney Swans.

Throw in Colm Begley, who has racked up 20 senior games for Brisbane Lions, Grand Final winner Tadhg Kennelly, the two ó hAilpín brothers and fellow Cork man Michael Shields, and there's a steady outward flow. And the numbers are increasing. "It's not a flood of players coming out," Kennelly says. "But in two or three years' time, there could be 30 and that's a flood."

The amount of current Irish players in the Australian Rules network is fewer than 20, but agents believe that by this time next year, that number will have trebled.

The argument isn't whether or not the youngsters are right to go Down Under. Of course they are right to go: there's a professional contract, a good salary if they make it big, lovely weather and massive promotional opportunities. No, the argument is that the clubs these guys are leaving deserve some sort of compensation for losing their best players. It's only a matter of time before the likes of Laois players Cahir Healy, Conor Meredith, Brendan Quigley, Zac Tuohy and John O'Loughlin receive further attention from the scouts who already have their eye on the brilliant Derry midfielder James Kielt.

The recruitment list will be widespread but it seems like it will take the departure of a 'real' GAA star, someone like Kieran Donaghy, to actually prompt the GAA into a reaction. The ultra-marketable Setanta ó hAilpín's exit should have been a warning sign but since he left, little or nothing has been done to stop the drain.

The GAA are fast losing face in all of this but maintain there is nothing more they can do. They have already abandoned the U17 international rules series to prevent our best talent from being placed in the shop window; they have temporarily aborted the senior equivalent, but yet the drip continues.

Meanwhile, the AFL clubs are getting cheekier. Reports suggest that Carlton Blues have already signed pre-contracts with four young GAA players from Galway, Laois, Cork and Armagh, worth €1,000 each -- on the condition they choose to play for the Melbourne club should they decide to opt for a career in Australia. Weigh in the fact that foreign players aren't subject to the same limited draft and salary cap rules as native Australian players and you see why clubs are freely targeting our players. The only pity is that their clubs, especially, and subsequently their counties, are left high and dry.

The common theory is that the only feasible way to prevent Ireland from becoming a free-for-all poaching ground is to re-establish official links with the AFL. Hence the likely rejuvenation of the international rules series in October. "There are still not an awful lot of players leaving here but the best way to control the flow is to maintain a relationship with the AFL," says a GAA spokesman.

"If there is no relationship, then this latest scouting plan is no different from our players leaving to join soccer clubs in England or to play professional rugby." It's interesting that one county seems to be targeted more than most. Laois chairman Dick Miller has seen more of his players recognised because of their recent underage success. The only way to stop young Irish players from leaving, he feels, is to set up a special scholarship scheme to guarantee them an education and help with costs.

"Without paying them, we could still look after them if this scheme was implemented," he says. "It would help meet their costs of education and give them something to stay at home for. My own club, Timahoe, lost Brendan Quigley for a while but what can you do? We're a small rural parish and he got a chance to go. We encouraged him to stay, but sure we had to wish him well in the end. I do feel that setting up a scholarship scheme would help young lads stay, so they could be looked after at home."

The notion that clubs should be compensated by the Australian clubs for losing players they have coached, nurtured and developed from a young age seems to have few backers at grassroots level, but it surely merits closer examining.

"I feel we would be opening the floodgates to professionalism if we agreed to that," Miller says. "That's a road we don't want to go down."

His county colleague and presidential candidate Liam O'Neill agrees that financial remuneration for aggrieved clubs is simply not an option for the GAA or its clubs. "By seeking financial compensation, we're effectively stating that we have a part to play in the 'ownership' of young players and that we're involved in his buying and selling process. We're not; we're an amateur organisation and our players are free agents. If we seek compensation, we open a door we don't want to open."

Instead, O'Neill feels the only way to stop the flow is to get back to the table with the AFL, restart the international rules and agree a stringent code of control. "Having a relationship is the only option," he stressed. "We must also realise that some Aussies are concerned with the increasing amount of Irish travelling too, as it will affect their own underage development. By restarting the rules series, we could at least agree that no player under 19 is recruited -- that would be a start."

Rathvilly man and Carlow chairman Pat Deering was another who looked on helplessly as their star player, Brendan Murphy, left for Sydney. He feels compensation for his club would have softened the blow.

"Brendan is gone and his brother is gone Down Under for a year too, so we've effectively lost two players," he says. "It's a wonderful opportunity for them but it would be nice if Rathvilly got some help too. We will struggle badly to stay up without Brendan. Financial compensation is a nice idea in theory but sure it wouldn't help us buy a new player either. I just feel that the Aussies attack when youngsters are at a vulnerable age and often zone in on weaker counties where a lad might not have much hope of domestic success and is more likely to leave."

Although the financial compensation package has worked in other sports, it seems the GAA will not embrace it and risk exposing their amateur status. But although under the umbrella of a volunteer-based organisation with no rights to the players, clubs that spend 10 years nurturing young talents deserve some reward for the effort they ploughed in. That's what happened some years ago at schoolboy soccer club Cherry Orchard when, under a Fifa directive, Coventry City had to pay them £135,000 for signing one of their players, Barry Prenderville. Compensation won't allow GAA clubs to go out and buy new players but it would help maintain their coaching structures.

Former Armagh manager Joe Kernan is hugely frustrated that his county lost someone as good as Dyas. "He's a guy who would have been a key player for the county for the next eight years," Kernan says. "The most annoying thing is that the clubs coach these young guys from six years of age and suddenly they are taken away and the club is left with nothing. I don't know if anything can be done about it, but the GAA have to look at some way of stopping this flow. Clubs and counties are going to be left high and dry."

Croke Park officials raised the poaching issue with their AFL counterparts last month and asked that the age profile of prospective recruits be increased. They also demanded that the youngsters who did move should receive a full education. "The practice is likely to continue whether we like it or not and certainly Páraic Duffy and I would be of the view that having a relationship with the AFL is more likely to help the process rather than hinder it," says president Nickey Brennan.

Duffy insists that separating the recruitment from the resumption of the international rules series is important, and maintains that if the GAA have no relationship with the AFL they will only have to endure more and more poaching.

"I hope the debate on whether to resume the series is kept totally separate from players being recruited," he says. "If the two things become complicated, it makes reaching a decision much more difficult. They are totally separate issues. In fact, the resumption of the series would be a plus in terms of putting restrictions on the table."

At the moment, revitalising the AFL connection and then implementing severe restrictions on future recruitment has to be the GAA's first step in counteracting the exodus. Introducing a meaningful scholarship scheme for targeted players should also stem the flow. Many professional outfits choose the Court of Arbitration for Sport to settle disputes, but the GAA won't consider going down that road as they don't own the rights to players.

Central Council should next month agree to restart the rules series which will bring the GAA back to the negotiating table: at the table, Croke Park officials can, at least, try to impose some restrictions.

Very good article, I think that some sort of a draft-type system should be implemented for foreign (read: Irish) players coming into the league. A free-for-all system like the one in place now, with its dangling carrots, will only create imbalance and might lead to players picking clubs for the wrong reasons. If players choose the big bucks over a club that genuinely wants them and is willing to give them a good shot, it will be to their own detriment in the long run.

hanton12

yeah I think the AFL should have some sort of draft ruling for foreign players. I really dont think though that 40 Irish players will leave within the year, thats just sensationalism. I dont think the GAA will let something as dramatic as that happen and the AFL definately wont. You have to look at it from their poit of view too. Their national game, and their own young players, would be denied a chance to play AFL because of 40 Irish players joining next year. That wont happen, it would kill their game if it was let happen.

The GAA loses players every year to one thing or another. In my club, we have lost 3 players this year, 1 has emigrated for good, and the other 2 are gone for a year. Look at the players who play soccer in England, and not just the big names. Plenty of these played GAA. Kevin Doyle would be on the wexford senior football team if he stayed. But did Reading pay Adamstown compensation?

At the moment I dont see a huge problem with whats happening, but if the report rings true and 40 Irish players go over in the next year, then I will be extremely worried. But at the moment, I think its just sensationalism and trying to sell papers.

Xavi6

Foreign recruitment has become a massive thing with the AFL now. Aside from the Irish players we all know about, they are also tapping into South Africa in a big way. A couple of clubs played exhibitions there a few weeks ago while a young Aussie team played against a young South African AFL team, much the same as the Irish under 17 thing. The game is also getting bigger in New Zealand so it's just really the AFL spreading its wings and thinking outside the box. If associations such as the GAA don't put road blocks in the way I expect it to get even better/worse depending on which side of the fence you're on.

_blank_

If the gah don't go proper professional they will continue to lose players to the AFL, imo.

And it's not a bad thing.

Take a lad from the arsehole of Leitrim, who is a decent player. What chance does he have of winning anything of note with his home county? None.

Tell him he can move to Australia, get paid for playing footy and have an all-round better lifestyle and there is really no choice.

The world is a much smaller place now, so it's not as if he'd be moving to Mars or something.

More power to the lads who go over. I hope many more get the opportunity.

Mahatma coat

and when we do colonise Mars, I expect AFL to be tha game of choice can you imagine the marks in a 1/3rd gravity :eek:

tonton zola

I think an age limit and cap of 1 overseas player per year for each club. Maybe even set up a system where overseas picks can be traded as is done with draft picks.

It would mean a max number of players leaving every year, although I can't see every club taking a player. It would also mean AFL clubs would have to think hard about the right player.

But as was said earlier, South Africa is becoming more and more important to the AFL. As well as games, some clubs set up camps over the close season to source talent.

scaramanga

you have to remember too that not all the lads that go over will be a success.
for every Kennelly/Begley there will be 4/5 fellas that will come home after 2years.
Very hard for an 18 yeard old guy to turn down the chance to play sport professionaly, live in a fantastic country and get sent to university as well. if it all goes wrong he comes back after 2 years superior training and is probably a 30% better athelete. An example of this is tadhg who was told in the first few weeks that his running style was wrong and retrained to run differently

chubba1984

Watched a very good documentary on Martin Clarke on BBC2's Season Ticket last night. Looks a very promising prospect for Collingwood and a very level headed young lad. Although it has to be said that he enjoyed winning the Down Division 1 title with An Riocht as much as his extended run in the Collingwood side.