Little can really done about the AFL drain
IS there a certain wistfulness when you see his name pop up in despatches? Being honest, yeah, there probably is. He could have been the one. The heir to Darragh Ó Sé. The natural successor to David Moran. The powerhouse for the next generation. There’s the hope that sometime, maybe, down the line he might come back to these shores – and his cameo for Dingle in the 2018 County Championship certainly whet the appetite for it – and if it comes to pass it comes to pass and if it doesn’t it doesn’t.
No harm, no foul, people wish nothing but the best to Mark O’Connor in his adventure Down Under. Even though it was a wrench to see him go, people are generally pleased for him to do well, proud that one of their own is making waves in the land of the Big Dipper.
If a guy wants to go he wants to go and there’s nothing the GAA can or should do about it. The GAA is an amateur organisation, they don’t have any ownership or claim over anybody who plays their games.
Yes it’s disappointing for clubs and coaches and county teams and managers when players do opt to try their hand at Aussie Rules, but as O’Connor explained this week “it’s hard to keep players at home when maybe the opportunities aren’t as great as they are out here”.
O’Connor’s intervention is welcome in the wake of a lot of overheated rhetoric in the wake of Cathal McShane’s mooted move to the Adelaide Crows. It’s a splash of cold water for anybody inclined to rail against the AFL.
Some people get very hot under the collar when a player makes the move the AFL in a way they never would for any other sport. As we’ve noted on these pages before there wasn’t half the sturm und drang when Darren Sweetnam went to Munster as when McShane went to the AFL. Now maybe there is a case that the GAA should loosen its bonds with its antipodean counterpart. Do we really need the International Rules? Even at that scrapping the International Rules wouldn’t make one bit of a difference. The AFL would still come calling. Players would still want to go.
We’re just going to have to learn to accept it.