{"id":259225,"date":"2025-11-03T07:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T07:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/259225\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T07:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T07:28:10","slug":"son-of-an-irish-gun-set-to-join-the-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/259225\/","title":{"rendered":"Son of an Irish gun set to join the Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__summary\">\n                St Kilda will welcome a young Irish star next season\n            <\/p>\n<p>                                Kobe McDonald in action and (inset) father Ciaran during the 2004 International Rules. Pictures: Instagram\/AFL Photos<\/p>\n<p>YOUNG Irishman Kobe McDonald will join St Kilda in the middle next year as a Category B Rookie.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald, whose father Ciaran played International Rules for Ireland against Australia in 2004, will head to Moorabbin once he completes his schooling.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald, 17, has been turning heads at County Mayo, with former player and current coach Austin O&#8217;Malley last month labelling the teenager &#8220;the most exciting thing I&#8217;ve seen in a jersey in quite a while&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>                    Ciaran McDonald fends off Max Hudghton during the 2004 International Rules clash at Croke Park. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re thrilled to welcome Kobe and the McDonald family to St Kilda,&#8221; Saints CEO Carl Dilena said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Kobe&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen the impact Irish players can make in our game, and we&#8217;re looking forward to supporting Kobe as he begins his journey with the club.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Monday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.afl.com.au\/news\/1450258\/brisbane-lions-get-a-boost-with-signing-of-star-irish-teenager-ben-murphy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Brisbane confirmed the signing of Ben Murphy from County Kerry.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Kilda will welcome a young Irish star next season Kobe McDonald in action and (inset) father Ciaran&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":["post-259225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259225","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=259225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}