Kerry U-20 Ben Murphy partnered up next to All-Star certainty Joe O\u2019Connor at midfield and looked calm in the chaos, scoring three points from play and underscoring his ability even in defeat.<\/p>\n
Shortly, however, it is expected that he will sign on the dotted line for Brisbane Lions, the latest Kingdom phenom to depart following the exits of Mark O\u2019Connor, who played for Dingle in the final, Cillian Burke and Rob Monahan.<\/p>\n
If it is a sore point in Kerry, consider how Mayo<\/a> ladies football<\/a> supporters feel watching seven of their own compete in this season\u2019s AFLW campaign. A record 39 Irish women are playing Down Under in 2025 and while it\u2019s up and coming male players that are being signed up, it\u2019s LGFA players in their peak who are being recruited.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re losing 40 of our highest profile female Gaelic games athletes that young people see playing, and those role models are taken out of our system, it\u2019s a huge blow to Gaelic games,\u201d said Gaelic Players Association head and former Mayo midfielder Tom Parsons.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know how important role models are for kids to go to games, to want to go to games. We can only imagine how many kids are pulling out of their parents to go and see David Clifford play. We have amazing female athletes that had that same pull in Mayo, as an example \u2013 and they\u2019re all in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n Two more LGFA Players, Tyrone\u2019s Aoife Horisk and Meath\u2019s two-time All-Ireland winning defender Mary Kate Lynch, were invited by the AFL to testing recently, along with Derry and Offaly seniors Ruairi Forbes and Cillian Bourke.<\/p>\n Horisk and Lynch finished first and second in the 20m sprint section and, according to a report on the AFL website, \u201cthe pair are likely to nominate for the Telstra AFLW Draft at the end of the year, with a number of sides interested\u201d.<\/p>\n Clifford knocked back the opportunity when contacted by AFL scouts as a teenager. More recently, the GAA\u2019s most recognisable player suggested that some form of compensation may be required by the clubs or counties of players who are contracted by AFL sides.<\/p>\n Parsons\u2019 answer is a little different and rooted in the very raison d\u2019\u00eatre of the players union, to provide county players with the most positive experience possible of GAA, LGFA and camogie activity. By doing so, Parsons argues, we will naturally hold on to more players.<\/p>\n \u201c(It\u2019s) the value proposition of being an amateur elite athlete, where you can have a thriving work career, that you have a really enjoyable game and that you\u2019re not out of pocket, and that you\u2019re supported through a grant mechanism with the Government, and that you have a good charter in place,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re all things that maybe will make a player think twice.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure some of the top male players that we know who have been approached and who have turned it down did so because they want to play for their county. And we\u2019ve seen a lot of players come back, who could have got contracts, but who came back to play with their club and their county because they see the value.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the Government has a role, the Government bodies have a role but we should be doing everything in our power to sell what\u2019s great about being an elite amateur athlete. To be able to represent your club, to be able to have your full athletic identity but also to have a thriving career as well.<\/p>\n \u201cThe data from our intercounty report showed that inter-county players started their career earning more but by the time they got to 30, they were earning less than their peers. The seven-month (season) window, even the commercial piece, players being able to bring their personal brand to the game, all these things matter and they count.<\/p>\n \u201cThe recognition from the Government, a really good charter, really enjoying the playing rules, not training like a dog in December. I think all those factors contribute to help keep players in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"County final defeats are typically brutal, but when you possess perhaps the best player on the field, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,147284,71482,121040,71481,147285,85],"class_list":["post-248029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-gaelic-football","tag-gaelic-players-association-gpa","tag-kerry","tag-ladies-gaelic-football-association-lgfa","tag-mayo","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kerry's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5UQHAHNMVBFXJO4KF6HV5WU24Y.jpg\")
Kerry’s David Clifford and Joe O’Connor. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n