GAELIC GAMES:DUBLIN SENIOR football manager Pat Gilroy declined to get drawn into any further debate with Australian Rules agent Ricky Nixon yesterday, but was happy to outline his own view of what the drive to recruit GAA players to Australia really amounted too, writes TOM HUMPHRIES

Four Dublin players – James McCarthy, Rory O’Carroll, Cian O’Sullivan and Paddy Andrews – withdrew from Wednesday trial sessions held in Gormanstown, prompting a sharp response from Nixon.

“You can’t dictate people’s lives. I am led to believe he called his players last night (Tuesday) and threatened that they would not play at the weekend if they came to the trial. I am not going to stop a player from playing county football, it doesn’t make a difference to our recruitment – we will still recruit the players. So what he is doing is ridiculous and he is just making a fool of himself.”

Gilroy pointed out that nobody had asked permission to attend the trials and nobody was told not to go.

“If fellas went and trained for four hours we couldn’t consider them for the weekend when everyone else is resting. We have no college activity and no club activity this week.

“You do what you do with us and make your own decisions after that. I’m not going to lose any sleep over how it is construed.”

Gilroy declined to respond directly to Nixon’s less temperate comments but was happy to outline his own view of the cottage industry which recruitment has become.

“From here in with regard to this issue and this guy we are just going to let sleeping dogs lie. Personally, I don’t know how attractive the thing is anymore. The amount of traffic there is coming back and the opportunities there are in Ireland have begun to tip things, I think.

“Things are changing, especially with the way the GPA have done stuff in terms of scholarships. There is a huge attraction to staying here now while you are in college. If you have a career already then it is an even bigger big risk. I think the whole GPA thing has made staying a lot more attractive.

“A fella with a degree who qualifies will be on the same money very quick as he would have made in Australia, plus he will have a very good sporting career while his own work career is developing.”

Gilroy concedes the attractiveness of warm weather and the chance to be a full-time sportsperson but, while Australia will always be sunny, there are no guarantees about the longevity or success of a career Down Under.

Players coming back have several pieces to pick up. Gilroy who won an All-Ireland club football medal two years ago with St Vincent’s, feels the ties that bind have been undersold.

“The GAA and the GPA coming together and the entire jobs initiative I think it is starting to tip things back in favour of Ireland. You have a career and have this improving support mechanism coming from the GAA and GPA.

“You can play and you can work on a career which will sustain you for the rest of your life. You train and play in a place and a tradition that you know. You are with the people you grew up with and have the prospect of winning something in that tradition without the upheaval of going to the other end of the world.

“If you go away for a few years and don’t make it – and being honest, not many do make it – you come back and you are behind, you have missed out on career opportunities and you have missed out on all the profile that you might have taken advantage of in Ireland. That would just be my view. We have more to offer than we give ourselves credit for.”