Lynch warns on AFL exodus as McShane set to move

Former Tyrone defender John Lynch says the GAA as a whole should be concerned about speculation linking Cathal McShane with a move to the AFL.

All-Star McShane last week dismissed a previous report tying him to heading Down Under but Tyrone website TeamTalkMag on Thursday evening claimed he was on the brink of signing a two-year deal with Brisbane Lions.

A revelation at full-forward last season, 23-year-old McShane would be an incredible loss for Tyrone, who are still coming to terms with the news captain Mattie Donnelly will miss a large chunk of 2020 through injury and they will also be without forward Connor McAlliskey.

Lynch, an 1986 All-Star who also featured in the early Compromise Rules games, argues the departure of McShane following the switch of his former minor team-mate Conor McKenna to Essendon in 2014 could be a defining moment for the GAA.

“Kerry have probably lost more players than anybody else but they can produce more players at the top end of the line than we do. Last year, we produced a player, a player winning an All-Star in his first year at full-forward, and bang he could be gone.

“For the preservation of Tyrone football, it would be disappointing. For McShane personally, it’s a professional sports career and potentially a great standard of living so you can’t be critical of that.

“But I’m talking from a Gael point of view. I played Compromise Rules against the Australians and it wasn’t a worry what we were doing then because we didn’t look on them as a threat to our game but it is now. It’s worrying when counties like Tyrone and Armagh, who don’t have the abundance of players that the likes of Dublin and Kerry have, have their best players subject to Australian Rules interest and they could be gone.

“It’s worrying for the GAA because the gaps between counties aren’t going to close when those in the chasing pack are having their best players picked off.

“McShane’s club Owen Roes just missed out on promotion this year and got that close because of McShane. We look on him as a county player but they would be the ones to miss out the most like those Kerry and Kildare clubs in the past few years.”

Brisbane Lions currently has Dubliner and Ballyboden St Enda’s player James Madden on its books having previously signed Pearse and Cian Hanley (Mayo), Colm Begley (Laois) and Niall McKeever (Antrim).

Lynch mentored McKenna at development level in Tyrone and knew he was destined for big things. “I saw a superstar, this lad coming through that was going to help us win All-Irelands. But this is a new era for the GAA when not every county can say, ‘Yes, we are producing our best players at senior level’.

On the matter of the advanced mark which further imitates the AFL game, Lynch says: “It’s an alien rule to Gaelic football and a knee-jerk reaction to defensive, slow build-up football. What is there to say this won’t make the game more boring?

“If Donegal are prepared to play Michael Murphy at the edge of the square it will change the game for them but I’m not for this rule because it’s also one-dimensional.

“You have to allow football evolve and this stops it. It might mean more high-fielding but when you produce so many rule changes in such a short space of time it hurts the game.”

Former Cavan footballer Nicholas Walsh, who previously worked as a coach with the Greater Western Sydney Giants prior to becoming a programme manager with the AFL Coaches Association, says the communication lines regarding player recruitment have to improve between the GPA and the AFL: “GPA need to work with the AFL to understand more.”

Former Meath star Bernard Flynn reacted to the latest report of McShane’s departure: “@CathalMcshane reportedly has signed a 2 year deal for the Brisbane Lions ginormous blow to @TyroneGAALive and football in general - How many more are we going to lose? getting fairly serious now!”