Kerry under-20 star Evan Boyle heading to Richmond for AFL trial

Kerry's Evan Boyle celebrates. Pic: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho

Ballyduff and Kerry under-20 All-Ireland winner Evan Boyle is set to go on a trial with AFL side Richmond Football Club.

Boyle, along with fellow Kerry U-20 star Daniel Kirby of Austin Stacks, took part in a scouting combine training session in Athlone in the middle of August and now Boyle is headed for Melbourne. 

It is believed that between 15 and 20 players from all over Ireland took part in the assessment and five were shortlisted for further scrutiny, with only two contracts up for grabs. 

Among the notable players who took part were Dublin defender Charlie McMorrow, his Dublin teammate Tim Deering, Leitrim midfielder Barry McNulty and Kerry’s under-20 All-Ireland-winning midfield pairing of Boyle and Kirby.

It appears that  Boyle is the only Kerry player travelling to Australia and nothing is decided yet in terms of a contract. 

It is believed that one other Irish player is traveling to Richmond as well.

If Boyle impresses on trial at Richmond, he would then be offered a Cat­egory B rookie inter­na­tional con­tract and would be join­ing fel­low Kerry men Mark O’Con­nor, Cil­lian Burke, Rob Mon­ahan and Ben Murphy in the AFL. 

There are cur­rently 15 Irish men con­trac­ted to AFL clubs.

There are rumours that Murphy, who has enjoyed an impressive rookie year with the Brisbane Lions, may be returning home for a break and might well feature with his club Austin Stacks in SFC.

Meanwhile, Micheal Quirke has taken charge of Kerry Divisional side St Brendan’s for their tilt at the Kerry SFC. 

St Brendan’s will face West Kerry in the opening round on the weekend of Sept 20th/21st and will be favourites to advance as West Kerry do not have an Intermediate club, now that An Ghaeltacht have joined Dingle in the senior ranks.