MEATH ALL-IRELAND winner Orlagh Lally has signed for Fremantle Dockers, the AFLW side have confirmed, a move first reported by The42 earlier this month.
The midfielder is the second member of Meath’s 2021 All-Ireland-winning squad to make the move to Australia, with Player of the Year Vikki Wall set to join North Melbourne.
Lally – like Wall – will see out the remainder of Meath’s All-Ireland title defence before joining Fremantle as a rookie, despite the new August AFLW season start and pre-season kicking off this month.
The 20-year-old has already linked up with Leitrim’s Aine Tighe, who is already on the books with Fremantle.
“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a great opportunity and a bit of a new adventure as well,” Lally said.
Yep, we're excited for this one. pic.twitter.com/GMng1akb5r
— Fremantle Dockers (@freodockers) June 22, 2022
“I’ve heard great stories about Australia and it was really nice to get to know Aine and put a face to the name. She told me how great it is over at Fremantle and in Perth. It added an extra bit of excitement and reassurance as well knowing that you have someone from home over there as well.”
Fremantle senior coach Trent Cooper believes Lally has the ability to play across multiple positions in the AFLW.
“We’re really excited to get Orlagh on board, when word came that she was interested in pursuing an AFLW career, we jumped on that straight away,” Cooper said.
“She’s very young to be making the move at 20 years of age but she’s got a good head on her shoulders and is looking forward to the challenge of coming across.
She looks like the type of player that will adapt to the physical nature of the game. The contact isn’t as strong in Gaelic as in AFLW but most of the Irish girls adapt really well and she looks like one that will actually relish the physical contact in the game.
“Orlagh is capable across all three lines. She’s reasonably tall at 172cm, not key position tall, but a really powerful runner with good evasive skills and kicks the ball well on both feet.
“Orlagh’s already done some AFLW training and she kicks the ball better than any Irish player I’ve seen at that stage.
“She went for a kick with Aine a couple of days ago and Aine reported back she kicks it way better then she did at that stage.
“If she can become half a good as kick as Aine we’ll be happy! She has those basic fundamentals and at 20, she’ll pick up the game even quicker.”
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