GALWAY senior Cillian McDaid and last year’s All-Ireland minor winner with Kerry Stefan Okunbor have been invited to attend the annual AFL Draft Combine in Melbourne in October.

The pair trained with the AFL Academy in Florida in January, along with David Shaw (Kerry) and Evan Murphy (Galway), impressing with their athleticism and ball skills, as well as their interviews with the scouts from various clubs.

They will travel to Australia in September to...

ZACH Tuohy chuckles at the memory of that first phone call from AFL scout Gerard Sholly. At 17, he didn’t know an Australian accent from a Nigerian one.

On ‘Hello’, the brain computed Ulster and reasoned that this must be a journalist from the north, wanting to talk about the All-Ireland minor semi-final r...

FORMER Cavan footballer and current AFL coach Nicholas Walsh has rejected criticism of the recruitment of GAA players by AFL clubs.

Mark O'Connor is just the 20th GAA recruit to play in the AFL

Walsh, who has been part of the coaching staff since the GWS Giants’ inaugural season in 2012, dismisses the dep...

AROUND Kilkenny, if the names Shefflin, Cody and Holden come in conversation, the likelihood is that hurling will be the topic, with Henry, Brian and Joey having captained the Noresiders to All-Ireland success at the highest level, Henry considered one of the best to ever play the game and Brian possibly the greatest manager of a sports team this country has seen.

OISÍN MURPHY seems to have been around a long time but then he was so young when he shot to prominence. He handled that meteoric rise remarkably well, showing a maturity way beyond his years and being extremely comfortable dealing with media interest.

The Killarney native has coped just as well with the setbacks that i...

THERE was a time, even as she had barely entered her teens, when it seemed inevitable that the Niamh McCarthy would play for Cork.

“I knew if I didn’t try to come back that I would always wonder what could have happened” (Photo by Inpho)

There was a time too, when it appeared certain that the ...

IRISH Grand National-winning jockey Robbie Power says that the updated Non-Trier Rule means that jockeys will be riding for punters and stewards rather than horses and their connections, and admits that riders will have to be harder than they would like and risk the futures of young horses, to avoid falling foul of the regulation.

R...

IT WAS the second minute of injury time when Aisling Dunphy entered the fray. Kilkenny were four points clear of Cork, their supporters in celebration mode. At last, the hurt of 22 years and six final defeats would be consigned to the past. The Cats would be All-Ireland champions once more.

A 17-year-old Dunphy had also bee...

IT IS another of those quintessential national hunt stories that captures the very essence of jump racing.

“Katie has done a great job with him; you have to hand it to her... She's with him every day; she knows the horse, the horse knows her and that has to be a help” (Photos: Caroline Norris)

It st...

SLIGO manager Niall Carew must plan without a number of key players when his side make the journey to New York for their preliminary round Connacht SFC tie at Gaelic Park on May 7.

Niall Murphy, Kevin McDonald, Gerard O’Kelly Lynch and Luke Nicholson will all be absent due to injury and exam commitments.

Murphy suffered a Grade 2 tear of his hamstring and will be out of action for at least six weeks.

Meanwhile, McDonald, O’Kelly Lynch and U21 star Nicholson miss ...