AFL in danger of alienating GAA, Earley warns

THE AFL risks alienating its GAA counterparts if AFL clubs proceed with plans to hold a week-long recruitment camp for young Gaelic footballers in Australia this year.

So says former Roscommon All-star Paul Earley who has acted as an Irish liaison with Aussie Rules clubs seeking to recruit young talent here in the past.

It is believed that the camp, which would be organised by a number of AFL outfits, would be held in October with a number of Gaelic footballer’s best upcoming talent being invited.

Said Earley: “I don’t know if it’s the most economical way of doing it. Up to now they have been sending their own people over here but I suppose there are benefits of bringing eight or ten guys over there at the one time.

“They could run a series of tests in their own environment and that would make it a bit easier to judge whether a guy is the type of player they are looking for. I don’t necessarily think that would be the way to do it though.

“I would think that the way they have always done it is the way to go — hand picking a player rather than bringing him over as part of a group. It has the potential to alienate the GAA further if they are bringing groups over.”

Earley is no longer involved with the AFL’s recruitment drive and it seems the Australians no longer have a need for such a contact after building up considerable local knowledge in recent years.

Two years ago the Lions held a series of trials in Limerick and the clubs’ representatives have been making more frequent trips to Ireland with the emergence of players like Begley, Martin Clarke and the Ó hAilpíns.

A number of outfits who had yet to dip their toes in the Irish pond sent representatives over to Dublin and Galway for last year’s International Rules series but the man most prominent so far has been agent Gerard Sholley.

Earley has gone on the record a number of times to say that the hysteria over AFL recruitment drives was way over the top, claiming that far more young footballers are lured to soccer than Aussie Rules.

Having spent a year on trial with Melbourne in the 1980s, he speaks from a position of strength when he says that the GAA has benefited more than it has lost from its links with the Australian code.

Though Jim Stynes, Tadhg Kennelly and Sean Wight have all been lost to the oval ball game, others like Anthony Tohill, Brian Stynes, Colm McMenamin and Niall Buckley have all returned to Ireland as better players after stints in the professional game.

Whatever the methods used to recruit Irish players, he believes interest will merely grow as long as youngsters like Begley and Clarke display the ability to progress from rookies to first-teamers in less than 12 months.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if this (Australian trial) was a step they are going to take. Clubs have seen the value of Irish players who have gone over in recent years and Martin Clarke last year was the most recent of them.”