{"id":645848,"date":"2026-08-19T18:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T18:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/645848\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T18:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T18:01:17","slug":"david-clifford-proposed-a-fix-for-afl-brain-drain-the-gaa-should-listen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/645848\/","title":{"rendered":"David Clifford Proposed A Fix For AFL Brain Drain – The GAA Should Listen"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the back of the loss of Kobe McDonald<\/a> to St Kilda, it seems as though many feel as though the GAA need to take some steps to stem the flow of the sport’s the best young talents to Australia.<\/p>\n

Of course, as an amateur organisation, they cannot match the finances on offer from clubs in the AFL. The lure of becoming a professional athlete is something that is difficult to compete with.<\/p>\n

Richmond’s controversial combine in Athlone this week was the latest example of this dynamic in action, with some big names in attendance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There have been discussions with the AFL about putting some sort of system in place to limit the poaching of young players from the GAA<\/a>. One subject on the table is to cap the numbers that can be recruited from each county, ensuring that certain teams are not unfairly targeted.<\/p>\n

A previous suggestion from David Clifford is something that should also be considered.<\/p>\n

David Clifford had solution for GAA to AFL drain<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n Recommended\n <\/p>\n

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David Clifford was heavily courter by AFL clubs as a teenager, ultimately opting against a move to Australia in order to pursue an inter-county career with Kerry.<\/p>\n

While he decided against an AFL switch, it is likely that other big talents will be attracted to the possibility of a move Down Under. Assuming the practice does continue, the Fossa man had a solution to somewhat make up for the loss of such talents.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Irish Examiner<\/a> in 2025, he suggested that the clubs of those players should receive some sort of compensation for the time effort gone into training over the decade or so previous, similar to what schoolboy clubs in soccer receive when their players are part of big money transfers.<\/p>\n

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I suppose something that you’d like to see anyway if it was happening, whatever about the person’s county, the person’s club would be maybe reimbursed in some way.<\/p>\n

You see the stories in Celtic, Adam Idah\u2019s club in Cork (College Corinthians) is still benefitting from that. Hopefully, Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher will get his move this summer. And then you see that his club, is it Ringmahon, are looking to benefit from that and what that is going to do for the young people in that club.<\/p>\n

Something along the lines of that. I know the money is nothing like that stratosphere, but maybe that’s the one thing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Will GAA and AFL come to some sort of agreement?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is certainly an interesting suggestion. While it would not necessarily stop the flow of young talent to Australia, it would ensure that GAA clubs were compensated for their potential loss and given money that be reinvested in facilities or other areas.<\/p>\n

It would also add an extra financial burden on AFL clubs when it came to recruiting from within Ireland. Depending on the amount of compensation required, that may force them to think twice before committing to such signings.<\/p>\n

While some may feel that the GAA should not engage with the AFL in any way when it comes to young players moving to Australia, putting together an official process of some sort may be the best way to ensure that method for players to make such switches is fair to athletes, clubs, and counties.<\/p>\n

The two parties are currently in the midst of discussions around a potential framework around such moves in the future. With the Australian outfit keen to resurrect the International Rules series, it is thought an agreement will only be struck if the Association are satisfied with the outcome of these talks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the back of the loss of Kobe McDonald to St Kilda, it seems as though many feel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,5286,19,17,132],"class_list":["post-645848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-eire","tag-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117123487028350272","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645848","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=645848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}