Marc McGowan reports on the www.afl.com.au website that the next wave of Irish talent is on it’s way ready for potential drafting/rookie listing later this year.

The newest batch of potential Irish AFL recruits will land in Melbourne in April, while another will privately audition for Sydney.

Ronan Devereux, Ross McQuillan, Peadar Mogan and Luke Towey are the chosen ones out of the 20 Irishmen who tested in front of recruiters at the AFL Europe Combine in Dublin in December.

They will complete more testing during their fortnight in Australia, with the hope of being signed or drafted to an AFL club for the 2020 season.

 

The Swans' list and recruiting boss, Kinnear Beatson, made the trip to Dublin for that Combine and has invited 193cm, 92kg Irishman Barry O'Connor to the Harbour City.

Belfast Redbacks last weekend hosted the Leprechaun Cup for men and women. The tournament is the big season catalyst needed for clubs ahead of the start of the AFL Ireland season which isn’t far away. The following report from the Belfast Redbacks details the day with all scores, with the host team, the Redbacks, taking the men’s title and the University Shamrocks the women’s.

Saturday 23rd of March saw the annual Leprechaun Cup being held at Boucher Road playing fields with 5 men's teams and 4 women's taking to the field of play.

The London Swans and South East London Giants made the trip over from across the water and fielded teams in both the men's and women's competitions. The Galway Magpies, the South Dublin Swans and the Belfast Redbacks brought the number of men's team to five.

The girls from the newly formed West Lothian Eagles made the trip to Belfast for the first time and the last team in the ladies competition was the Irish University Shamrocks team.

 

The following extract is from an excellent story by Ellie Honeybone at ABC Great Southern looking in depth at the popularity of Australian Rules football in Europe, driven heavily by the uptake of the game by women across Europe.

A growing number of women and men are signing up to play Australian Rules in Europe and there are hopes a women-only league will be established in Switzerland in the next few years.

Katherine Dellar spent her childhood playing AusKick with the boys, and played Australian Rules for the Australian National University in Canberra.

When the 30-year-old moved to Switzerland 18 months ago she had no idea the sport would once again become part of her life.

"Geneva has a large expat population, a lot of those are Australians, and I heard via word-of-mouth about people who were trying to get an AFL team together," Ms Dellar said.

Weekend results in France have certainly fallen in favour of the ALFA Lions. Locked in a battle for a place in this season’s finals, the Lions needed a couple of things to fall in their favour with just three rounds remaining of the season. First of all, they gained the points after the Stade Toulousain team forfeited their match.

The club are on a mission to recapture their premiership form from two seasons ago and stated, “we [have] got strong ambition this season as the last one [2017/18] was very disappointing for us.”

Certainly the points for the forfeit help, but so do other results from the weekend.

The Paris derby saw the Paris Cockerels further enhance their premiership credentials by downing their siblings the Paris Cockatoos. The Cockatoos are also deep in the hunt for a finals spot, and their defeat to the Cockerels will hurt, putting them back with the pack fighting for finals spots.

“Ducky? I’m not really sure, it’s just a family nickname I was given as a child. You might have to ask my mother! However, one of my earliest memories is of my brother teaching me how to solo on the run in the back garden when I was like three or four years old. He had me running around my mother’s washing basket which was almost the same height as me!”

And so begins the interview with Ailish Considine, recruited by the Adelaide Crows last year after she impressed enough to catch the eye of recruiters at the CrossCoders program. Like so many before her, Ailish has a story of curiosity which became desire, commitment and now success.

Her journey began in Ireland, “playing with West Clare Waves at home was really the first time I was introduced to playing the game. Rosie Currane recruited a few of us to play a tournament in November 2017 because her brother Mike had organized it. Obviously the Irish girls already playing Australian football over in Australia made me more aware of the AFLW.”

The inaugural season of the AFL England National University League came to a close last weekend with the Oxford University team taking the honours in the men’s grand final, whilst the University of Birmingham women’s team won their title.

The grand finals bring to an end a season of fun and enjoyment for the university teams of Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham and southern Wales, but more than that it was a showcase of talent within the universities. Players who are not already aligned with clubs for the upcoming season now have a pipeline in place with a successful first season at university level.

The success of the program has already prompted interest from other university-based teams across England and beyond and it will be interesting to see whether the competition expands further next season.

Both the Paris Cockerels and the ALFA Lions have strengthened their chances to play in the CNFA Leo Legrange finals series later this year, coming away from their trips to Toulouse with victories. It was a tough day for both Stade Toulousain teams with defeats that will certainly put pressure on their own finals chances.

In the opening match, the Paris Cockerels were too good for the Stade Toulousain 1 team, winning by 22 points. The victory certainly puts the Cockerels into flag favouritism and a chance to seek back to back titles. Despite a hiccup when they went down narrowly to the Bordeaux Bombers, the Cockerels have looked the goods again this season.

The ALFA Lions have been determined to put their rollercoaster journey behind them. After winning the 2016/17 flag and missing the finals altogether in 2017/18, the Lions have worked hard to get back into finals contention. Their victory against the Stade Toulousain A team by 24 points keeps them inside the top four and a good chance to hold their ground throughout the remainder of the season and play finals.

 

Anthony Redmond has compiled the following list of Irish players for the Sports News Ireland website. Whilst the information on each player is brief, the link to the original article is valuable as it contains a small video story about each player. The original article can be accessed by clicking on the following link: https://www.sportsnewsireland.com/other_sports/aussie-rules-list-of-irish-players-in-the-afl-2019/  

The article does not look into the Irish women playing in the AFLW, though this may be investigated in a future article.

We have the growing list of Irish players in AFL, there will be 14 players in 2019 with various Australian Rules clubs. 

We have decided to look at the current inter-county players who are currently plying their trade in Australia.

 

Janet Boyle has written this inspirational story for The Sunday Post in Scotland which looks at the journey Ashley Palmer has taken from near death to a desire to one day play again. Once again, it is the courage of people like Ashley that put all forms of football back into perspective. Janet’s story at www.sundaypost.com tells of a young man who, despite what he had endured, still loves his West Lothian Eagles club and team mates. 

Linlithgow sports fanatic determined to return to action after fighting back from horror car smash 

When talented young sportsman Ashley Palmer suffered a serious brain injury in a car crash, his family feared his life was effectively over. 

Left in a coma for six weeks, doctors feared he might not pull through. 

Even as he regained consciousness, he was unable to speak.

The French footy season recommenced yesterday when the Paris Cockatoos made the journey south to meet the Bayonne Toreadors in the opening match of Round 5 of the CNFA Leo Lagrange competition.

Going into the round, both teams were in the mix for possible finals football, so a win to either team would be hugely valuable. After the Round 4 matches had been completed, all teams were still in the race for finals if they could find consistency over the remaining five rounds. A win in this match would certainly strengthen that team’s claims.

The Toreadors had already proven themselves to be highly competitive, with their maiden win against the ALFA Lions in Round 2 following their impressive debut match when they pushed the Paris Cockerels to a 20-point result.