Rookie Aisake joins Setanta at Carlton

FOR the second time in 12 months Na Piarsaigh have lost a key player to Australian Rules football.

Nineteen year-old Aisake Ó hAilpín has been signed up as a rookie by the Carlton Blues and will team up with his older brother Setanta, who is in his second season with the club.

News of Aisake signing for his new club has come as no surprise to the Na Piarsaigh who recently won the county SHC title with the brothers playing key roles in their victory over Cloyne.

Club chairman Paddy Connery said it is disappointing to lose another key player.

“From a club point of view it’s disappointing as we had put a tremendous amount of work into bringing them to where they are now as hurlers. They are down in Australia on a trial basis, and the club would like to wish them both the very best. If it doesn’t work out, we gladly welcome them back.”

Carlton Blues have submitted the necessary documentation to the AFL to have Aisake included on the rookie list, and his signing will be announced at a press conference today at the club grounds.

Meanwhile, two years after leaving his club and throwing in his lot with Tipperary, former Kilkenny captain Denis Byrne has re-joined Graigue-Ballycallan.

Confirming the move back to his home team yesterday in a formal statement, Byrne hasn’t ruled out a return to inter-county action. But, at the age of 30, he appears to accept that it’s unlikely.

Transferring to Mullinahone and teaming up with John Leahy and the Kelly brothers Eoin and Paul in January of 2003, Byrne said that the whole experience of living and playing in another county had been ‘one of the most satisfying’ periods of his life.

“My heart, obviously, will always be in Kilkenny and when Kieran Hoyne (club chairman and father of Kilkenny player John Hoyne), Liam Fennelly and the committee of Graigue-Ballycallan told me of their plans and ambitions, there was only one decision to take.

“There are a lot of great players at Graigue Balycallan and also a lot of top-class players who are no longer playing at the club. But I’m confident that if those players returned, this club is capable of scaling the heights it did a few years ago. I have no doubt in my mind about that.’’

On the subject of a possible return to action with Kilkenny, Byrne says that he wore the county jersey at every age from 14 upwards.

He was captain of the team which lost the 1999 All-Ireland final to Cork and in that year’s semi-final against Galway he gave an outstanding exhibition at wing-forward.

The following March he was back in Croke Park when Graigue Ballycallan lost narrowly in the AIB All-Ireland club final.

“People will wonder if I still have ambitions to pull on the black and amber jersey for Kilkenny once more. All I can say is that I don’t have a crystal ball. But I do have is a longing to get back in my home club jersey.”

When Kilkenny faced up to Tipperary in what proved to be a classic All-Ireland hurling semi-final two years ago, Byrne was a member of the extended Tipp panel. Not unexpectedly, he took no part in the game.