{"id":258866,"date":"2025-11-03T03:22:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258866\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T03:22:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:22:06","slug":"natural-abilities-victorian-club-wins-race-for-irish-prodigys-signature-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258866\/","title":{"rendered":"“Natural abilities”: Victorian club wins race for Irish prodigy\u2019s signature – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Irish footballer and Gaelic prospect Kobe McDonald<\/a> is all but set to make the switch across the world and join St Kilda in the AFL<\/a>, despite being linked to Brisbane and Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Hailing from Mayo, which is the same as Geelong’s Oisin Mullin<\/a> and former Brisbane Lion and Gold Coast Sun Pearce Hanley<\/a>, McDonald is deemed one of the more exciting Gaelic talents.<\/p>\n

“We’re thrilled to welcome Kobe and the McDonald family to St Kilda,” Saints CEO Carl Dilena said.<\/p>\n

“Kobe’s natural abilities have been evident for some time, and his experience playing Gaelic football will provide a great foundation for his transition to AFL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen the impact Irish players can make in our game, and we’re looking forward to supporting Kobe as he begins his journey with the club.”<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0Irish Examiner<\/a>, the Demons met the 17-year-old earlier this year in a bid to land him.<\/p>\n

The Crossmolina Deel Rovers clubman, who produced several standout performances in his debut senior season this year, is the son of Ciar\u00e1n McDonald, who featured for Ireland’s International Rules squad multiple times.<\/p>\n

Ciar\u00e1n was arguably best afield in the 2004 First Test<\/a> contest against Australia as Ireland claimed the victory.<\/p>\n

He will join fellow Irishman Liam O’Connell<\/a> and Eamonn Armstrong<\/a> at Moorabbin.
McDonald will move to Australia to join his teammates after finishing school in mid-2026.<\/p>\n

Kerry U20 Ben Murphy<\/a> also spent time with the Lions in August. He featured in the Kerry SFC final against Dingle for the Austin Stacks, which Geelong premiership player Mark O’Connor won<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Murphy became the latest Irishman to join Brisbane,<\/a> following in the footsteps of Kilkenny’s Darragh Joyce<\/a> and Tyrone’s Conor McKenna<\/a> are currently on the list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish footballer and Gaelic prospect Kobe McDonald is all but set to make the switch across the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-258866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258866","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=258866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}