GAA News

It looks like two more promising young GAA players are a step closer to giving the AFL a crack.

While all the talk of late has been about Dublin’s young superstar Ciaran Kilkenny and his possible move to play Aussie Rules, two other young GAA players are on the cusp of turning pro Down Under.

This morning the AFL named 10 overseas players who have been invited to take part in the 2012 Draft combine next month and the list contains two Irish players.

First up is 19-year-old Emmet Bradley from Derry. The Watty Grahams clubman has been on the Aussies’ radar for a while and took part in Tadhg Kennelly’s recruitment camp in Dublin in February of this year.

The second on the list is Kildare’s Sean Hurley. The 20-year-old is stands at 1.95m so has the build for the Aussie game and he is probably best known for being allegedly dropped from the Kildare senior panel in 2011 after attending Oxygen. Hurley also attended the Kennelly-run camp earlier this year.

Both are rising stars in their respective counties and would be a loss to the game here. It is interesting to note the nationalities of the other players on the international draft, which sees one player from China and three from the United States.

All ten will have to fight off close to 200 local players in a series of tests next months in front of AFL team scouts. If they do well, they could be selected and join an AFL team.