WHITE HEAT SEES EAGLE FLY HOME
PADDY BROPHY was on City Beach in Perth when he settled on a final decision to swap West Coast Eagles for Kildare. After a couple of years in Western Australia, the Celbridge man (below) followed a similar path to most Irish AFL recruits - glad he tried it, but happy to go home. “I had been going through a phase for three or four months deciding what to do,” he explains. “I was trying to get back to enjoying football, enjoying what I was doing. I was hanging on for a good while. “I was getting to a stage where I was playing decent football, didn’t see the spot opening up for the first team, didn’t get the opportunity. “From there I thought to myself, ‘I don’t see myself breaking in this year. I don’t really want to hold on for much longer’.” Brophy says one of the biggest challenges was coming from playing football at a high level in Ireland to suddenly finding himself at the bottom rung in Australia. There are examples of players taking to the game seamlessly, like Kerry’s Mark O’connor, who recently debuted for Geelong only months after his leaving Ireland. So, how close did Brophy get? “In my first year, and even midway through my second year, I was pretty close. There are three separate lists, your main list, rookie list and a category B rookie list is where the Irish players are. “And the only way the category B players can play is if somebody on the main list gets a long-term injury and then they get promoted onto the main list of play. “It sounds a bit deceiving but you are almost hoping that someone does get injured. It’s probably something you don’t want to be hoping for. “So I finished third in the best and fairest, the player of the year awards, in the second team last year and that obviously played a factor in signing a new contract. “But, this year was different. I could have hung on for another six months and maybe got another contract or whatever like that.” The issue of AFL clubs poaching Irish talent is a hot topic of late, with Tadhg Kennelly coming under fire for his part in it, though Brophy wouldn’t steer any youngster away from it. “I’d advise them it’s all positive. It is your decision, not Tadhg’s decision. I learned a huge amount over there and it was an unbelievable experience.” Brophy is back in training with Kildare but it remains to be seen whether he will be in the shakeup for Sunday’s Laois clash. “I might get an opportunity. I am not too sure,” he said.