{"id":647464,"date":"2026-08-20T15:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T15:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/647464\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T15:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T15:37:12","slug":"worrying-times-for-kerry-gaa-as-two-huge-talents-offered-afl-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/647464\/","title":{"rendered":"Worrying Times For Kerry GAA As Two Huge Talents Offered AFL Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the GAA<\/a> and AFL hold discussions over the migration of Gaelic football players to Australia, it seems as though clubs Down Under have little intention of slowing their recruitment drive in this country.<\/p>\n

It seems highly likely that Kobe McDonald’s<\/a> move to St Kilda will not be the only high profile departure in the near future. The top young talents in the GAA are still being courted by numerous Australian clubs.<\/p>\n

Richmond are the latest side to get in on the action, holding a combine in Athlone earlier this week. It is said that up to 20 players attended the event, including Dublin senior players Charlie McMorrow and Tim Deering<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple of Kerry prospects were also in attendance, both of whom reportedly have AFL contract offers on the table.<\/p>\n

Kerry GAA prospects receive AFL contract offers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kerry have been among the counties hardest hit by the AFL’s scouting mission in Ireland, with Mark O’Connor, Cillian Burke, Rob Monahan, and Ben Murphy currently contracted in the league. That number looks as though it could be about to grow.<\/p>\n

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John Fogarty of the Irish Examiner<\/a> is reporting that Kerry’s U20 All-Ireland winning midfield pair of Daniel Kirby and Evan Boyle have both been offered contracts by AFL clubs.<\/p>\n

That duo played a key role in The Kingdom’s All-Ireland run earlier this year, helping the county to their first triumph at that grade since 2008. It was assumed both players would be part of the senior setup moving forward, although that now looks in doubt.<\/p>\n

Both Daniel Kirby and Evan Boyle were said to be in attendance at Richmond’s combine this week, although it is unclear if that is the team has put forward contract offers to the players.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether the offers will be accepted, but as we have seen in the recent past, the chance to become a professional athlete is difficult to turn down for many.<\/p>\n

Kerry and others growing tired of GAA to AFL route<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many in Kerry have been outspoken about the AFL’s poaching of young GAA players, an opinion that is becoming more commonplace throughout the country.<\/p>\n

The GAA are keen to put safeguards in place to limit the numbers moving Down Under, including a potential cap on the amount that can move from each county. Some, including David Clifford<\/a>, have also called for some sort of compensation to be paid to the club of the players who do move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the GAA and AFL hold discussions over the migration of Gaelic football players to Australia, it seems…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,957,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-647464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kerry","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117128583895528280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647464","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=647464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}