GAELIC FOOTBALL:AUSSIE RULES teams who recruit Gaelic footballers may soon be forced to pay thousands of euro in compensation to GAA clubs, with a motion from Roscommon now due to come before the Annual Congress.

A Kilglass Gaels club motion wanting a rule introduced that will force Australian clubs to pay up to €20,000 to the GAA club which developed a player who heads Down Under, was overwhelmingly carried at the Roscommon convention at the weekend and will now go before Congress in Mullingar in April.

The motion proposes that if an AFL club signs an Irish footballer that a compensation package be paid to the player’s former club to reimburse them for the training received.

“Players do not become stars overnight. It is a process that begins at seven or eight years of age and is developed through a combination of natural ability, hard work and commitment to one’s sport,” said Kilglass delegate Charlie Reynolds.

“A player is nurtured by the careful dedication and mentoring of club coaches from underage levels upwards

“I do not disagree with the practice of young players going to Australia to play football professionally – in these straightened economic times young people must take any opportunity presented to them. I am simply suggesting that clubs must be compensated in some meaningful way for the loss.

“The purpose of this motion is to ensure that another organisation which seeks to utilise our resources for profit would have to compensate the GAA. By compensating the club, it means that funds would go back to where the loss is most acute,” said Reynolds.

Meanwhile, Limerick senior football manager Maurice Horan has revealed he will be without the services of former captain Pádraig Browne and goalkeeper Conor Ranahan for the coming season.

Wing forward Browne, who can also operate in defence and sub goalkeeper Ranahan, who made his senior intercounty debut last year, are the latest victims of the emigration crisis affecting intercounty teams.

Browne and Scanlan will be absent as Limerick prepare for life in Division Three of the league.

Horan confirmed: “Pádraig Browne’s travelling to Australia for the year and Conor Ranahan, our sub goalie, is gone travelling as well. . . they contacted me straight away when they knew that I was taking over.”

Limerick begin their 2011 competitive campaign next Sunday against All-Ireland champions Cork in the McGrath Cup quarter-final at Newcastlewest. Horan said: “We’ll definitely try a few new guys on Sunday. We’ve earmarked a few from last year’s club championship and from the U21 panel, which I managed last year.”

- YESTERDAYsaw the opening of the annual Cumann na mBunscol primary school finals at Croke

Park and, as usual, it didn’t disappoint those who attended in search of entertainment.

Eight finals were up for decision as the top two teams in each competition went head to head for the honour of being regarded as Dublin’s finest.