Brennan admits it's hard to stop AFL exodus

NEWS:THE GAA will continue to explore new ways of limiting the exodus of young Gaelic footballers to the Australian Football League but for now their hands remain tied.

With Kerry's young footballer-of-the-year Tommy Walsh and team-mate David Moran the latest names linked with such a move, taking up an offer for a trial with Melbourne-based St Kilda, the GAA are still awaiting a response from their AFL counterparts to determine what, if any, such limits can be placed on the whole recruitment and trial process.

"We have had discussions with the Australians on this matter and they said they would come back to us in the early part of the New Year," says GAA president Nickey Brennan.

"I suppose we always felt that there would be a few more new players going out to Australia, particularly in this autumn time, and I think we will have much more to say on this when we meet Australian officials.

"But I'm blue in the face saying that we can do nothing, per say, for now.

"But in our discussions with the Australians I put two questions to them; that the age of signing players would not be under 19 years of age; and that they have also agreed that they would not conduct any type of a recruiting programme.

"They have a scheme out there where they identify 15- and 16-year-olds and sign them up like soccer. They have agreed that will not happen in relation to Irish players, and that we also put a limit to the number of players going to any one club.

"Obviously there are clubs in the AFL who have no interest in taking Irish players. They don't have the capacity to handle it. But at the end of the day if you are asking me if we can go out to Dublin airport and stop Tommy Walsh or David Moran from getting on a plane to Australia the answer is no."

Brennan was also concerned that many young footballers leave for Australia with illusions of grandeur, only to be left disappointed.

"We have also talked to Tadgh Kennelly on the matter. I think we would be concerned in this extent that some of the clubs are frankly ill-equipped to cater for some of the young Irish players going out there.

"The Irish players that have been successful in Australia have been inclined to be those where clubs took a particular interest in all aspects of their development, their career, their education and what not, and feedback that we certainly got back when we were out there recently was that some clubs are ill-equipped and that would be obviously be of concern, and Kennelly has said that to us.

"But there is also no difference between our guys coming through the ranks and going on to play soccer.

"And we have a scrumhalf (Cork's Tomás O'Leary) in action against the All-Blacks on Saturday who held the All-Ireland minor cup here in Croke park a few years ago on the podium.

"That is the way life has gone. Young people are choosing to play others sport and the lure of professional sport sometime takes some people there but in an overall context the number of people that the GAA are losing to Australian Rules is minuscule in the overall context.

"It's still the exception rather than the rule."