Heavy suspensions proposed for Portlaoise

The GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) have proposed some heavy suspensions to Portlaoise arising from incidents in last month’s AIB All-Ireland club semi-final defeat to Kilmurry-Ibrickane.

Team captain Bruno McCormack and goalkeeper Michael Nolan have both had 12-week proposed suspensions, while Brian Mulligan, who was sent off in the first minute of the game, and manager John Mulligan, who protested with the referee during the half-time interval regarding the dismissal of his son, have had four-week suspensions proposed.

Both McCormack and Nolan were expected to return to the Laois team for the county’s remaining division two campaign, but will not be eligible to play until mid-May if the suspensions are imposed – but they are expected to take theitr case to the Central Hearings Committee.

Meanwhile, Australian Rules talent scout Ricky Nixon raised a few eyebrows in Parnell Park on Sunday when he attended the National Hurling League clash between Dublin and Tipperary – giving some credence to the speculation he was targeting young hurling talent on his latest recruiting trip to Ireland, rather than just young football talent.

Nixon has reportedly invited between 15 and 25 young intercounty players to his first trial camp of 2010, which takes place tomorrow afternoon at Gormanston College in Meath.

Nixon also attended the Sigerson Cup final in Maynooth last Saturday, and it seems inevitable some players from those college teams – UCC and DCU – will be at the trial tomorrow.

However, Nixon has so far declined to put names on the invitations, and it remains to be seen who exactly does show up, but what is certain is he is representing at least four Australian Football League (AFL) clubs: Geelong, Richmond, Western Bulldogs and St Kilda – who have also sent their own club scouts to view the best of the Irish talent.

Nixon claims Freemantle and Western Sydney are also interested in recruiting in Ireland.

Speaking at a press conference at the weekend, Nixon hinted at the possible recruitment of some hurling talent. “There are two players who are coming next Wednesday who play hurling as well,” he said. “So we would be interested at looking at hurling but I would be lying if I said it is a goldmine for finding players to play Aussie football.

“I think that some of the things that define our game like courage and how tough they are and the skill level is certainly something that AFL football share with hurling. But I wouldn’t think we would be picking a million players out of hurling to play football, that’s for sure.”

Nixon also described Wednesday’s camp as being different to other such ventures for a number of reasons: “The biggest change is that we are here earlier for the Sigerson Cup, and we are here for longer. Trials will also be in June, July, not November or December.

“The other significant change is the way we are going about the recruiting. It has become very evident to me that just plucking a kid from Ireland that people think can play AFL football and taking him to Australia for training in November and December is a waste of time.

“The bridge in the gap in the fitness and strength and conditioning is just getting wider, wider and wider. Hence on Wednesday the players we invite to the camp and other selected players who won’t be at the camp, either we’ve seen before or we don’t want them at the camp for various reasons, will be getting a package that includes skills DVD, strength and conditioning programmes.

“They won’t be invited to Australia until they have undertaken a minimum of three, preferably six months of AFL training before they come out.”

While Kerry’s Tommy Walsh became the latest high-profile recruit, and is on a two-year trial contract with St Kilda, he hasn’t made the sudden jump into first-team AFL play some people expected.

The other recent recruits, Conor Meredith at the Kangaroos, Niall McKeever in Brisbane, and Jamie O’Reilly have also been making slow rather than startling progress.

Even if Nixon does manage to get a few more recruits out of tomorrow’s camp, the exodus of young GAA talent to Australia would still appear to be a trickle more than a flood.