- AFL clubs have recruited Irish Gaelic football players
- Include 2024 AFL premiership winner Conor McKenna
- Irish clubs want compensation for losing young players
Furious Irish football officials are demanding compensation from the AFL after several new poaching raids to bring their top talent to Australia.
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) faces growing challenges as young Irish players increasingly migrate to the AFL.
Currently, 13 Irish players are under contract with AFL teams. This number peaked at 18 before the pandemic, but declined due to hiring freezes and salary cap reductions.
Kerry GAA president Patrick O’Sullivan has urged the organization to implement measures to compensate clubs and counties for losing emerging talent to the AFL.
O’Sullivan revealed that seven young Kerry players had recently been contacted by AFL scouts, which was putting pressure on local Irish clubs.
“Representatives from AFL clubs are constantly hanging around Kerry’s minor and under-20 teams,” he said.
Conor McKenna celebrates his Irish heritage after winning the 2024 AFL premiership with the Brisbane Lions
“A procedure will have to be established in which players cannot be hired without contributing to the club and the counties that give so much to the development of these players.”
Kerry, a traditional Gaelic football powerhouse, has already lost key players such as Mark O’Connor, a Premiership winner with Geelong.
O’Connor is one of two Kerry natives to win an AFL Premiership, after Tadhg Kennelly, who achieved the feat with Sydney in 2005.
The problem is not limited to Kerry.
“We in Kerry are not the only county suffering from this problem,” O’Sullivan said.
‘There are players from other countries who also choose to emigrate. “We will ask the GAA to form a committee to investigate this matter.”
The AFL’s interest in Irish talent, known as the “Irish Experiment”, began in the 1980s.
Melbourne legend Ron Barassi first identified the similarities between Gaelic football and Australian rules football.
Geelong star Zach Tuohy celebrates winning the 2022 AFL premiership with Geelong draped in a flag of Portlaoise, a small town in Ireland’s South Midlands from which he hails.
The experiment gained traction with players such as Jim Stynes, the 1991 Brownlow Medalist, and more recently, Zach Tuohy, who set the V/AFL games record for an Irish player with 288 appearances.
The AFL women’s competition (AFLW) has also drawn heavily on Irish talent. There are currently 33 Irish players competing in the AFLW, adding a distinctive Gaelic flair to the league.
O’Sullivan highlighted the financial attractiveness of professional sport as an important factor.
‘They have been selling a professional sport to our youngest players. “It is difficult for young players not to think about a professional career in sport,” he said.
Kerry’s concern extends beyond individual player losses.
“If our younger players continue to emigrate to Australia, the prospects for Kerry’s senior teams in the future will not be good,” O’Sullivan warned.
“Kerry players are at the heart and soul of our country, and we have to find a method to retain and keep our players in Ireland.”
The GAA is also exploring ways to revive the International Rules Series, a hybrid game combining Gaelic and Australian rules football.
The series, which last took place in 2017, has been a platform to foster relationships between the GAA and the AFL.