Aussies scouting for third level talent

Australian Football League scouts are continuing their active recruitment in Ireland with talent spotters present in Carlow at the weekend - keeping an eye on students playing in the Higher Education Football championships.

Scouts from the Adelaide Crows AFL club were in the stand at Carlow IT as UUJ accounted for DIT by eight points in Saturday's Sigerson Cup semi-final.

Earlier in the day they attended the Corn na MacLeinn football final at Graiguecullen where Marino College beat Mater Dei by a point after extra-time.

However, their presence at the venue on the Laois/Carlow border was to keep an eye on the DIT side, who were in pre-match training, with Mayo's Aidan Kilcoyne, Cian Ward of Meath and Dublin star Mark Vaughan being closely watched.

This latest evidence of AFL clubs showing an interest in GAA players comes after comments by GAA President Nickey Brennan, cautioning against the recruitment of players.

"The bottom line is that the AFL clubs are pretty cash-rich at the moment. The salaries of players are capped, so they're looking for opportunities to recruit and they see Ireland as a rich fertile ground," Brennan said.

"They are prepared to take a chance on the players going out. They're getting them fairly cheap from a professional point of view so they're prepared to take a chance.

He added: "If only a fraction of them make it, it may very well be seen a worthwhile exercise. They're not just focusing on Ireland, there's a couple of other areas including South Africa."