{"id":199514,"date":"2025-12-19T04:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T04:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/199514\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T04:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T04:08:08","slug":"swans-boss-oriordan-conscious-of-player-drain-to-aflw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/199514\/","title":{"rendered":"Swans boss O’Riordan conscious of player drain to AFLW"},"content":{"rendered":"

New AFLW senior coach of the Sydney Swans Colin O’Riordan has said that while he is conscious of the GAA player drain to Australia, the lure of a professional sporting life is difficult to turn down.<\/p>\n

The 30-year old Tipperary native has made history by becoming the first Irish coach of an AFL or AFLW franchise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A decorated player for the Premier County at underage level that included All-Ireland success, he was recruited by the Swans in 2015 before being forced into retirement in 2022 due to chronic hip injuries.<\/p>\n

With three years coaching experience in various roles within the club, he has assumed the head coach role for the Swans\u2019 AFLW side.<\/p>\n

“When the moment arose, I had to jump at it,” he told RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s Inside Sport.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan has a vested interest in the growing number of Irish players making a career Down Under.<\/p>\n

A record 39 Irish players were signed up for last season, with that number expected to increase for 2026, Tipperary\u2019s Caitlin Kennedy the latest recruit with her switch to the Brisbane Lions.<\/p>\n

Concerns have been expressed within GAA circles given both the number and high-calibre players that have joined the AFLW.<\/p>\n

\"MELBOURNE,<\/p>\n

Bl\u00e1ith\u00edn Bogue (pictured above), Jennifer Dunne, Niamh McLaughlin, \u00c1ine McDonagh and Dayna Finn were the five Irish representatives in the 21-player All-Australian team<\/a> and O\u2019Riordan said he knows full well how difficult an opportunity it is to turn down if it lands at your doorstep.<\/p>\n

“I think it\u2019s testament to the GAA in the way they are developing young female athletes,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You are always conscious of the drain of players from Ireland, but what I always said when I was playing, it\u2019s the opportunity to go and be a professional, to get paid for something you love doing.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s very hard to turn down that opportunity when it comes. And it\u2019s not as if the Irish girls are going over and sitting number 35 on the list, a lot of them are going over and dominating which is fantastic.”<\/p>\n

The 12-week regular season, plus finals, doesn\u2019t get underway until August, so O\u2019Riordan has time to plan ahead.<\/p>\n

An early training camp will be held in February before pre-season is scheduled to begin in May. After a dip in fortunes last season, he insists the Swans’ target is to make a finals return.<\/p>\n

As the first Irish man in charge of an AFL or AFLW side, the significance of the achievement is certainly not lost on him.<\/p>\n

“When people say it, and when you see it written, it makes you quite proud,” he says. “I\u2019m very patriotic and I love the fact I\u2019m Irish trying to keep the flag flying in the AFL.<\/p>\n

“That part definitely excites me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New AFLW senior coach of the Sydney Swans Colin O’Riordan has said that while he is conscious of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-199514","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-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}