GAA CAN DO MORE TO HALT TALENT DRAIN… BUT THEY WON’T

It’s easy to see where Kobe McDonald is coming from. A concrete job offer in Australia. The chance to follow the well trodden path to the AFL and live the lifestyle of a professional player.

A starting contract that can evolve into a six-figure one with the opportunity to earn multiples of that if he can deliver on all that obvious Gaelic football promise — no easy task having to travel to the other side of the world to play a game that involves an oval ball.

Especially when the road to pro sport stardom is littered with broken dreams. But again, it’s easy enough to understand McDonald’s reasons for the move Down Under, which Maurice Brosnan reported this weekend.

If there’s a hot property in Gaelic football right now, at least as far as young talent is concerned, it’s the son of Mayo cult legend Ciaran, a baller in his own day.

The county quarter-final against Belmullet was a prime example, the teenage Crossmolina Deel Rovers player showing all the qualities that evoke Dublin’s Brian Fenton in full flow: that languid stride and comfort on the ball for a player with a reach and wingspan to make him a go-to player around the middle third.

It made sense that TG4 would decide to screen live a game that would introduce him to a new audience. And he was simply sensational, scoring 1-5 and picking up the Man of the Match award – the only problem being he couldn’t accept it and speak in front of the cameras because he is too young according to the GAA’s own guidelines that help protect young players.

In Kerry too, there is dismay that Austin Stacks’ superb young talent that is Ben Murphy is going the same way and be lost to the AFL. The fleeting glimpse of Dingle’s Mark O’Connor and the huge impact he made in his recent sabbatical from Australia only compounded the sense of what Kerry have lost since he upped sticks.

Compensation for the clubs and the counties who have invested such time into the coaching and development of these players who are then scouted by the AFL and tempted abroad has always been a problem that the GAA can’t resolve.

Because the players are amateur, there are no contracts to be honoured or bought out in terms of financial recompense.

Looking for AFL clubs to pay some sort of financial compensation sounds nice in theory but looks fanciful in the face of free market economics.

If McDonald was a maths whizz who was set to take up a top job with an actuarial firm in Ireland after completing his Leaving Certificate, but decided to take up a job in Australia instead, it’s not as if his school or his old teachers would be looking for compensation for developing his talent. Or the company here wouldn’t recognise the right for any prospective employee to send his CV anywhere around the world.

Unfortunately for the GAA, this AFL talent drain is one of those awkward points where the amateur ideal meets the cold world of professionalism.

As the talent drain to the AFLW has shown, one which has had a clear impact on the quality of the county game and the All-Ireland Championship with so many players absent, the impact on counties and the game as a whole is very real.

Mayo already lost Oisin Mullin to the AFL, just when he looked ready to establish himself as a leader on a county side that is still desperately trying to win a first All-Ireland title since 1951.

What doesn’t help the GAA’s cause is the mixed signals they continue to send out: seeking to reconstitute the bastardised hybrid International Rules game which only serves to give Irish players a taste of what they might be missing from a pro point of view while undermining the window set aside for club action.

Failing to police the closed inter-county season and the ban on collective training which was put in place to protect the best interests of players — and young emerging stars such as McDonald.

If this is one circle that might never be squared from the GAA’s point of view, well the starting point should at least be to run the inter-county window in a professional manner rather than the nod-and-a-wink attitude that currently prevails and does little to suggest the best interest of players will be looked after.

2025-11-03T14:00:25Z