\n Dons bring aboard promising Irishman as Category B Rookie.\n <\/p>\n
Essendon has confirmed the signing of 19-year-old Irish prospect Cillian Bourke\u00a0as a Category B Rookie for the next two seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hailing from County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland, Bourke makes the code switch as one of the gaelic game\u2019s most touted young prospects \u2013 even named as his county\u2019s Best Under 20 Player last season.<\/p>\n
At 190cm, Bourke\u2019s physicality and athleticism translate well to the AFL landscape. Pundits and peers in Ireland have lauded his ability to kick on both sides as a left footer and break lines with his run and carry, positioning him as a potential utility option for the Dons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bourke first visited Australia back in September to participate in the AFL Draft Combine, having been training in Dublin throughout the year in anticipation of tryouts with clubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On deck training with the group as of this week, Bourke is already lapping up every moment of his new career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty special to be here, and I can\u2019t wait to further experience the professional AFL life,\u201d Bourke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first got involved in AFL around July last year. I was contacted to do a couple of sessions in Dublin with some boys who had links to Australia, and after some testing everything started to fall into place.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been great getting to know the boys and get stuck into main training. I’m an athletic player and can cover the field up and down, and I\u2019ve got good leg speed and I back myself to be solid on both feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to pushing forward and hopefully becoming one of the Ireland success stories.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
GM \u2013 List and Recruiting Matt Rosa sees Bourke as a potential high-ceiling signing for the Club going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to be bringing Cillian aboard to kick off his career as an AFL player,\u201d Rosa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom his tryouts abroad and his efforts at the Combine this year, Cillian really stood out to our recruiting team as someone who could transition to footy well and provide a great point of difference for us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis speed, power and agility are obvious high-end traits, but his foot skills and the ability to read the gaelic game as well as he does will give him a good base to work with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re super excited to welcome him into the program. The boys will be quick to get around him and make him feel at home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dons bring aboard promising Irishman as Category B Rookie. Essendon has confirmed the signing of 19-year-old Irish prospect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-325303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325303","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=325303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}