Kilkenny stalls on Carlton decision

Dublin U21 football star Ciarán Kilkenny will wait until after his Leaving Cert before deciding whether to accept an offer of a trial from AFL club, Carlton.

Kilkenny has been in tremendous form in the capital side’s progression to Sunday’s Cadbury’s All-Ireland U21FC final against Roscommon but there are growing fears the Melbourne-based club may tempt him to a life Down Under.

He revealed yesterday: “At the moment it’s 50-50 and everything is on hold until after the Leaving Cert. Professional sport is obviously going to attract me. Some time between here and October I could go for a three-week trial over to Australia and see what it’s like over there. There was another camp with Tadhg Kennelly where we saw DVDs of Aussie Rules. I know how hard it is to make it over there and a lot of people struggle. The most appealing thing is playing professional sports six days a week. It’s a very tough decision to make. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher as well. My preference at the moment would be primary school, a Gaelscoil or I could be a secondary school teacher, teaching Irish and history. You could do a teaching course over in Australia as there is a module on Wednesday where everyone goes to college.”