You’ve got to ROWE back, Peter

AGENT CALLS ON MAYO BOSS TO END ULTIMATUM

A LEADING agent in the recruitment of women’s GAA players to the AFL has begged Mayo boss Peter Leahy to see ‘sense’ and end his ultimatum talk.

Leahy has confirmed that “anyone who wants to go to Australia’ in the future, we’d have to omit from the panel and carry on regardless”.

Growing numbers of ladies players including Mayo star Sarah Rowe are balancing AFLW activity across winter and spring with their summertime Championship commitments.

Rowe and Mayo colleagues Aileen Gilroy and sisters Niamh and Grace Kelly played Down Under earlier this year with pre-season training for 2021 set to begin in Autumn. AFLW agent Jason Hill (above) is co-founder of the Crosscoders agency which represents 12 of the 18 Irish players in Australia, including the Kellys, and told Midwest radio that Leahy (inset) is mistake.

Melbourne based Hill said: “Five years ago, none of these girls, these sportswomen, thought that being a professional athlete was a possibility for them. Now they’ve got the chance to live that dream as well as the dream of playing county football.

“To take that away from them is something I don’t feel comfortable with and I’m hoping Peter sees sense in that and sees that he should be looking to support his athletes and not looking to take away from them.”

The AFL men’s season is scheduled to begin next month and Hill said his understanding is that the 2021 women’s campaign ‘will go ahead as planned’ early next year.

If Leahy sticks to his guns then Mayo players hoping to return to Australia will have to choose between t h e sports, with the potential added headache of a

making

abig delayed inter-county championship clashing with the AFLW pre-season.

Leahy reckons that crossing codes is unsustainable and revealed his belief that, “if you really believe in Mayo and really believe you can win an All-ireland, then you battle it through together”.

Leahy also claimed that “none of the Cork players go to Australia’ because they’re more interested in playing for their county”, adding that “Mayo people need to start believing in that too because we have a genuine team at the top level”.

Asked about the lack of Cork players in the AFLW, Hill said: “That’s not because none have tried.”

Hill claimed that some women’s players in the game generally have knocked back approaches but said many others have contacted him directly looking for an opportunity.

He said: “I feel like management might have one idea of what’s going on and they might have an idea of what they’re seeing in public but in reality I think there’s a lot of conversations going on behind closed doors that would be the opposite.”