Aussie clubs to continue recruiting in Ireland

The AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has indicated that Australian Rules clubs will continue to plunder Irish talent in the future.

Demetriou was answering questions relating to a proposed expansion of the league from 16 to 18 teams, with the emphasis of the interrogation centreing on where the new clubs in Gold Coast and west Sydney would recruit players.

Demetriou sought to allay concerns that the other clubs' top players would be snapped up by the new franchises by pointing to other avenues for discovering talent, including Ireland.

"I don't think we'd be going after (the other clubs') top 10 players at all," he said. "There's obvious talent that's coming through, through our talent pathways. Our 16s, our 18s . . . recruiting's very sophisticated now. There'll obviously be some players at clubs that will be fed into the 17th and 18th licences.

"There's obviously some talent that we're seeing now that's emerging from elsewhere, talent that comes out of Ireland, for example."

Though Demetriou later emphasised there would be no widespread raiding of Irish youth, his comments will be viewed with suspicion by the GAA, even though he is opposed to the 32-county scouting network proposed by players' agent Ricky Nixon.

Collingwood recruiting manager Derek Hine said clubs are likely to have to increase their activities in Ireland and South Africa, as even with 16 clubs, there had not been enough indigenous resources. "You see clubs looking at other areas now and it's an indication of the talent pool," he said.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times