EIGHTEEN IRISH PLAYERS on AFLW lists for 2020, but things may change going forward.
That’s according to league agent and CrossCoders co-founder Jason Hill.
Before going any further, what is CrossCoders? An agency, basically. Well, in their own words: it’s a global platform for all women in all sports which provides them with tailored education, coaching and opportunities to make their sporting dreams a reality. CrossCoders believe that every woman should have access to these opportunities no matter where they lie.
They’ve had unprecedented success in bringing Irish players to the AFLW.
But with the AFL working to take over the talent pathway and international recruitment, list rules changing and clubs hoping to keep players on a more long-term basis, Irish talent hoping to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone already could be seriously impacted.
As could those locked down over there, of course. One can only have the best of both worlds for so long.
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It’s been a pretty busy week in terms of Irish movement to Australia. On Wednesday morning, Melbourne FC confirmed the capture of All-Ireland winning Dublin duo Sinéad Goldrick and Niamh McEvoy — the first Dubs to join the Irish invasion Down Under.
On Monday and Tuesday, Cork, Galway and Meath stars in Saoirse Noonan, Olivia Divilly and Vikki Wall attended an AFL-organised combine in the same city.
A messy situation unfolded in the latter stages of the week, with an ugly dispute surrounding the number of games played each season and pay coming to the fore internationally, but it’s hoped that will all be resolved quickly.
Of the 18 Irish players confirmed for 2020 — the league’s fourth season — global talent agency CrossCoders represents 12. Goldrick, McEvoy, Mayo trio Sarah Rowe, Cora Staunton and Aileen Gilroy, and Down native Clara Fitzpatrick went through their respective clubs directly. Others successfully navigated CrossCoders camps both here and in Australia and stayed in the loop.
With Noonan, Divilly, and Wall attending the yearly AFL-organised combine, the governing body of the men’s sport appear to be trying to put their stamp on the women’s game, and trying to wrestle back some of the influence CrossCoders have built up when it comes to international recruitment.
“I’ve spoken to the clubs, and it’s the league that’s been pursuing this,” Hill tells The42. “They’re like, ‘We’ve done our business early, you guys provide that opportunity to do that. Why would we now take a risk on a girl we’ve seen for the first time a few days before the Draft [22 October]?’
“‘We don’t know really anything about their backstory, we don’t know where she fits into the club, we’ve already used a lot of the financial resources around bringing over girls based in Ireland — there’s obviously additional expenditure that there isn’t with local players.’”
The likelihood of clubs signing players off the back of it is minimal, from what he has heard, unless someone who came over was “an athletic freak with the skills to double down on that athleticism”. Divilly has since proven she could be just that, however. But time-wise, it just doesn’t make sense.
“I guess it’s more just to get a feel of these girls, and the AFL trying to put their mark on this talent pathway, than it is anything else,” he says.
“I think actually the girls that are coming through probably have been a little bit unfortunate in that there’s a chance they’re going to do all of this for nothing.”
CrossCoders, founded in early 2018 before the AFLW’s first expansion, always knew the this was going to happen. They knew from the start, that the AFL would try and take over international recruitment.
“All the feedback that we get from everyone that works in the AFL is, ‘You will eventually get overrun by the AFL,’” Hill explains. “That’s what they do. They see something they like and they either go and either replicate it or decide it’s not worth their time basically.
“They, in the end, decided that they can replicate this through the men’s combine that they already do in Ireland and it will be easier. That’s why they’re now trying to, in this first instance, bring out three girls but they’re also looking to run a women’s combine in December, alongside the men’s one which they currently run.”
“It just doesn’t really work from a timing standpoint for the AFLW clubs,” he continues, with the season kicking off in January and lists all set in stone long before then.
Squad rules are going to change after the coming season, however, and there are further changes proposed around how the can clubs build their player lists for 2021. Over the past few years, clubs needed more players to fill voids so there was plenty of opportunity.
But things are going to be different after the 2020 season, with stronger underage talent coming through and fewer contracts up for grabs.
“This coming year when they de-list players at the end of May, it’s going to be only three players they have to de-list,” Hill explains. “So in reality, there’s only 42 spots [three places on each of 14 teams] across the competition potentially at a minimum. They can de-list more if they decide to.
“But it means that we’ve more time for the U18s and to develop their pathways, meaning there should be more depth in the U18s coming through for 2021.
“So in reality, it’s going to be really hard for an Irish girl, unless you’re named Aish Moloney, to come in without having come to Australia beforehand and actually spent some time playing state-level football.”
He frowns, combining everything: “What’s been done this year, the reality is it looks like there’s so much more opportunity for players in Ireland to come and play this game, but now going into 2021, looking at the next cycle of girls, it’s going to be really hard.”
List managers have told Hill that yes, in reality, unless they’re one of these top, top, top level athletes with a well-known name on a more global level, international talent will have to come through playing state football in the likes of the Victorian Football League Women’s [VFLW] — the AFLW’s second string.
In turn for Irish players, that would mean missing inter-county football for an extended period of time, or for a short period like Cavan’s Aishling Sheridan who did a stint before signing for Collingwood professionally earlier this summer.
Kildare star Aisling Curley‘s different route Down Under is the perfect example. She moved to Melbourne last January to chase a coveted AFLW contract, but it turned into much more than that as she won the VFLW Grand Final with the Pies.
“That’s the only way now it’s going to really work,” Hill nods, when that idea of a long-term stay, developing one’s game through the ranks, is put to him.
Then, another example. He refers back to a recent conversation with North Melbourne’s AFLW list manager Rhys Harwood, who recently signed Mayo midfielder Gilroy.
“He reckoned he watched 100 hours of footage of her before making the decision. He goes, ‘Why would I spend 100 hours for a marginal gain in 2021 when I can spend 10 hours watching girls every single week in person?
“‘It’s not like I’m now looking for eight players on that list, I’m looking for potentially three — I don’t need to be searching through the depths of the universe.”
Instead, he could comfortably take someone who’s not currently at Gilroy’s level — and then spend the time he once spent looking for players and unearthing talent, on developing players currently involved.
So for CrossCoders?
“We might need to look at a model where we might need to approach players who would be considering not playing Gaelic football anymore,” Hill says. “Girls who have had enough, who were going to Australia anyway and are completely looking for a change.
“They’d be the players that now, clubs will say, ‘We’ve given up three or four list spots on our VFLW list to accommodate those that want to come down that pathway. We can give girls that have already taken the plunge a chance.’
“Are you going to get the top-end talent anymore? I doubt it, unless it goes full-time professional, which I don’t think it’s going to be in the near future.”
From now on — well from 2021 onward anyway — there’s a sense that ladies footballers are going to have to pick one or the other, unless they have already made their name in the Australian league. Clubs want players staying on a more long-term basis too, with the season length set to increase.
So that best of both worlds appeal — where inter-county stars can play AFLW and then come home for the tail end of league and championship — may be coming to an end, Hill stresses.
“I think it’s going to get to that point,” he says, “unless you are girls that are already established in this competition like Sarah Rowe, Ais Mac [Aisling McCarthy], those girls that are starting players already, I don’t think they’re going to change their tune for those girls too much.
“But if you’re coming out here new, there might be some pressure from clubs to stay this coming winter. I know some of the clubs have already started exploring this idea with some of the players. And the players, none of them have said outright no yet.
“If the clubs think they can get them to stay, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some of them staying and not going back for Gaelic football. But there’s a lot of, I guess, grounds still to cover on that stuff and I think it’s more any new girls who are looking to come out for 2021.
“I think you’re going to have to see them make a commitment earlier; come out this January, February time and look to stay until September. I think that’s maybe the only way we’re going to see girls get signed as we move into 2021.”
There is still a bright future there for CrossCoders, Hill assures. They may need to change their approach in some instances, make a few small tweaks here and there, but ultimately they can continue the brilliant work they are doing.
“We are working with other sporting codes now as well,” he adds, after explaining they plan on taking a more tailored approach with AFLW clubs. “It’s never going to end our interest in Irish female talent. Even though Gaelic obviously translates really well into Australian Rules football, there’s movement here around rugby union.
“Obviously there’s a lot of very talented rugby union players in Ireland as well that might be looking to take the next step into playing Super W rugby here in Australia. I think there’s plenty of opportunity for us to still work in these spaces, it’s just a slight change of pattern.”
That, there most definitely is.
For now, the focus is firmly on the coming weeks and Hill is understandably over the moon with four CrossCoders graduates earning All-Star nominations in Grace and Niamh Kelly of Mayo, Galway’s Mairead Seoighe and Tipperary and Western Bulldogs star Aisling McCarthy.
It’s about building on that now, going forward, on both sides of the world.
And that starts with the 2019 Draft in three weeks’ time. He understands that “around 500 nominations have been accepted”, including several who were at the CrossCoders camp in Athlone in May. So, fingers crossed.
“Hopefully we have a few more updates post-draft,” he concludes, with a smile, teasing “potentially three more based on current conversations”.
Who knows what lies ahead. 18 and counting, anyway.
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