{"id":620171,"date":"2026-08-04T16:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/620171\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T16:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T16:01:16","slug":"five-afl-clubs-circle-dublin-minor-star-as-kobe-mcdonald-heads-for-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/620171\/","title":{"rendered":"Five AFL clubs circle Dublin minor star as Kobe McDonald heads for Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Kobe McDonald will arrive in Australia on Thursday as AFL clubs begin to hover around Dublin teenage star Cian Raftery.<\/p>\n<p>Fresh from  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/sport\/gaa\/arid-41886211.html\">contributing to Mayo\u2019s historic All-Ireland SFC win<\/a> last Sunday, Crossmolina\u2019s McDonald is expected to attend his new club St Kilda\u2019s AFL clash against Carlton in Melbourne\u2019s Marvel Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">McDonald and members of his family have been enjoying a few days out of the country before the 18-year-old heads Down Under to begin his three-year contract with St Kilda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The news from Australia comes as AFL clubs are expressing significant interest in Dublin minor footballer Raftery. St Kilda, Sydney Swans, Melbourne Demons, Brisbane Lions and new franchise Tasmania Devils are reported to be pursuing the Whitehall Colmcille footballer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Raftery turned 16 this year and was called up to county minors, scoring 2-20 in the three group games against Offaly, Westmeath and Longford. He missed the semi-final defeat to Meath through injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Another AFL club, Richmond Tigers, are set to arrive in Ireland later this month with the aim of signing a category B rookie like McDonald. The club\u2019s recruiting manager Rhy Gieschen will travel here to oversee a combine and training session with around 20 potential prospects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">McDonald will be joined by his parents Ciar\u00e1n and Karen as he settles into his new life in Melbourne. He will spend the remainder of the year in Australia before returning for his brother Jordan\u2019s wedding in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The GAA are  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/sport\/gaa\/arid-41887690.html\">currently in talks<\/a> with the AFL about formalising how clubs approach Gaelic footballers. They are keen to see a cap put on the number of players that can be recruited per county.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It is understood the future of the International Rules, which the AFL are keen to see resurrected, is contingent on the discussions coming to an agreeable conclusion. The previous series took place in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kobe McDonald will arrive in Australia on Thursday as AFL clubs begin to hover around Dublin teenage star&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[10417,196184,9,10,18614,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,26710,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-620171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-gaelic-football","tag-aussie-rules","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin-gaa","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-mayo-gaa","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117038080870471633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}