Jim Stynes with wife Sam.

Melbourne Demons FC are hoping to get the green light from AFL and GAA bosses for an international rules game against Dublin in  honour of their cancer-stricken president, Jim Stynes.

Demons CEO Cameron Schwab told the Irish Echo while he’s received a “good response” from the AFL following “general discussions” on the idea, official talks have not yet been held with either organisation.

“It is just an idea and a concept at this stage but we think it’s a good idea and we really would love to explore it… but there’s protocol and really it’s the AFL who over time, have built a relationship with the GAA so we’d look to advance it early in the new year.”

Often dubbed Australia’s “most successful sporting experiment”, Stynes was first recruited to Melbourne FC from St Enda’s GAA Club in Ballyboden in 1984, despite having never played Aussie Rules.

The 44-year-old went on to have a hugely successful career with the club and become the only non-national to ever win a prestigious Brownlow medal. He was also inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

Stynes became president of Melbourne FC in 2008, a year before he was diagnosed with cancer after discovering a lump on his back. He has since undergone several operations to remove tumours and cancerous tissue, and has also turned to experimental treatment.

Mr Scwab says playing against Dublin in a prestigious venue like Croke Park would be a fitting tribute for the legendary Melbourne player.

“Ron Barassi was still coaching when he thought it was a good idea for a young Irish man to come and play…and one of the first young men he brought over was Jim Stynes.  There’s a heritage in that, to go and play a game against Dublin, and play it in as big a venue as we possibly can.

“The club has been built in some ways, in an image of Jim and his values and his own heritage within the club… and obviously that heritage goes way back further than just our club.”

Off the pitch, Stynes’ dedicated charity youth work with the Reach Foundation, which he founded in 1994, has resulted in him being named 2010 Melburnian of the Year, and twice voted Victorian of the Year. He was also honoured by the Queen with the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2007, and was nominated for Australian of the Year 2011.

Melbourne FC Chief Cameron Schwab says Jim is on board with the match proposal, as is his brother Brian Stynes who himself played for Dublin in the 1995 All-Ireland final.

“I’ve had a long chat with Brian about it…and there’s a number of other lads who’ve played for Melbourne and have been around Melbourne who came from Ireland over the years…. like Sean Wight and other lads who are back in Ireland now.”

The inspirational story of the father of two’s ongoing battle with cancer was detailed recently in an television documentary, Every Heart Beats True: the Jim Stynes story.

It was broadcast here in Australia in September and on RTÉ in Ireland earlier this month.

“We’ve always said that it’s the game’s greatest every story,” says Mr Schwab, “and there still plenty of chapters still to come.”

Action from the first International Rules test in Limerick. Pic: Adrian Melia

A late Bernard Brogan goal kept the International Rules series alive, but Australia will go into next weekend’s second and final Test knowing that a repeat of this superb kicking performance will be more than enough to regain the Cormac McAnallen Cup.

Mick Malthouse’s visitors were by far the better team throughout an entirely forgettable game which only came to life minutes from the end when Ireland staged an unlikely rally.

In the end the gap was reduced to seven, but the Adam Goodes led Aussies can take a lot of encouragement from this excellent performance.

Overs (three-pointers) from captain Goodes, James Frawley and Daniel Cross fired Australia in front, and by the end of the first quarter the visitors had established a 12 point lead.

The Mexican waves had begun in the crowd by the time the second quarter was five minutes old, but the 30,177 finally had something to cheer when Daniel Goulding kicked an Irish over.

Ireland’s kicking was shockingly awry throughout this game though, and despite dominating large parts of the second quarter, Anthony Tohill’s men went in at half time trailing by five.

It was 10 minutes into the third quarter before the accurate Australians finally kicked their first behind (one pointer), but the brilliant Leigh Montagna lifted his side with two outstanding long-range overs.

Carlton’s Eddie Betts followed suit minutes later with another superbly taken score, and the Aussies were completely on top leading by 13 points.

The series should have been put completely beyond Ireland’s reach in the fourth quarter when Man of the Match Goodes unluckily saw a fisted effort for goal come firing back off the Irish crossbar.

This miss almost seemed to inspire Ireland, and a late rally of overs, behinds and a magnificent individual effort from Brogan ensured at least some interest in next week’s final Test at Croke Park. On this evidence, however, the attendance might not be spectacular.

Irish coach Tohill agreed that his side’s late rally had rescued the series from being completely beyond salvaging next Saturday night.

“We found it tough to counter the Aussies and it looked like the series was beyond us,” he admitted.

“But the lads dug deep, we threw caution to the wind and it puts us in a decent position for the second Test.

“With 10 minutes to go, it was looking very poor from our perspective. We were nervous and edgy throughout the first three quarters – we were a bit lacking in passion and it is something we are going to have to address for the next game.

“Thankfully we got the goal at the right time and it was a superb strike from Bernard. In the final minutes we poured forward, we put the Aussies under a fair bit of pressure and we got a few scores.”

While Tohill had every right to be disappointed with his side’s display, Aussie boss Malthouse had every reason to be delighted with his team’s effort despite throwing away much of their accrued advantage late in the game.

“It’s just an idiosyncrasy of the game. There can be quick scoring, there can be a rush,” the Premiership-winning Magpies boss said.

“Once the under was scored, the crowd got involved. I still thought we had enough control of the ball so we could win the game.

“There’s always a tendency to overload your back half but I think sometimes that’s a panic and we just backed our forwards to stay where they were and backed our midfielders to get the ball to them.”

All will be decided next Saturday night at GAA headquarters.

International Rules Series – First Test

Ireland (1 – 8 – 10) 40

Australia (0 – 14 – 5) 47

from Aaron Dunne at Pairc na nGael, Limerick

It’s a big weekend for the AFL’s Irish recruits with three players lining out for their clubs in the senior competition.

The Sydney Swans Tadhg Kennelly

It will be an emotional night for Tadhg Kennelly and the Sydney Swans at the SCG as the Harbour City club’s coach Paul Roos and co-captain Brett Kirk make their last appearance at the team’s home ground.

Kennelly has made no secret of his close relationship with Roos, who has been at the helm since the 2002 season when he took over as caretaker coach for the sacked Rodney Eade. Ironically the Swans take on Eade’s current club the Western Bulldogs.

The Swans desperately need a win to cement their spot in the top eight.

Meanwhile Down man Jamie O’Reilly has retained his place in the senior Richmond side for the Tiger’s Saturday clash with St Kilda. O’Reilly made his debut last weekend in the club’s 89-point loss to Carlton.

Mayo’s Pearce Hanley will play his seventh consecutive senior game as the Brisbane Lions take on Essendon at Etihad Stadium on Sunday. However he won’t face his compatriot Michael Quinn. Despite being named on an extended interchange bench for the Bombers, he was listed as an emergency player when the final team was released on Friday evening.

At Carlton Setanta O’hAilpin’s remains out of favour. He’s been named on the emergency list for the Blues match against Geelong on Friday night. It’s the sixth week running that the former hurler has been left out of the first 22.

Richmond Tigers Irish defender Jamie O’Reilly makes his debut for the club in this weekends’ clash of the titans against rivals Carlton at the MCG.

The 22 year old former Gaelic football player is the Melbourne club’s first ever Irish player, after picking up the AFL code at a remarkable pace.

The County Down native was first spotted by Richmond recruiters playing U-21s for his county last March, and the following week in an All Ireland semi.

After being offered a trial with the Tigers, he put his commerce degree on hold and made the trip to Australia.

Following an impressive performance at Punt Road late last year, he signed for the Tigers on an international two season rookie contract. “I’m really loving it,” he told  richmondfc.com.au last month.

“It’s everything that I expected it would be, living the professional lifestyle. At home I had a part-time job, was studying full-time and had football five or six nights a week for all different teams.

“So it’s good to be able to concentrate all of my energy on one thing.

O’Reilly also recently told the Irish Echo how he hoped to notch up a senior game in the three remaining rounds of the season.

Now it seems his dream has come true, and after playing for the reserves for the past year, the Irish man will line out on the half back line against Carlton on Saturday.

The AFL rookie will be well represented for the big game, with the Tigers reportedly flying out his parents from Belfast.

He also told the Irish Echo how the dream was to follow the footsteps of fellow Irish players who made their AFL debuts in their first year.

‘You could almost count on one hand the guys who have managed to do it [play in their first year]- like Martin Clarke, Michael Quinn and Colm Begley, so it would be great to do it.

But does he have any hankerings to return to his native Down and Gaelic football?

O’Reilly admits he’s thought about it, but that he has no regrets. ‘I’m out here and I’ve made the decision to pursue another adventure, and I’m fully focused on trying to play senior football’.

Collingwood has signed Down teenager Caolan Mooney to a two-year international rookie contract commencing in the 2012

New Collingwood signing Caolan Mooney

season.

Caolan, who is considered to be one of the finest young players in the county, will finish his schooling in Ireland before he relocates to Melbourne at the end of 2011.

However, the club has played down reports that fellow Down star Martin Clarke may return to the Magpies fold.

“We have not asked him and he has not broached it,” Collingwood’s national recruiting manager Derek Hine told the Irish Echo.

“He’s playing great footy for Down and has an All Ireland semi final coming up. I am in regular contact with him as he lived with my family while he as in Melbourne but at no stage has [a possible comeback to Collingwood] been discussed.”

Clarke played 46 games for Collingwood before he returned to his homeland at the end of 2009. Reports in Ireland had suggested that he may be considering a return down under in 2011.

Meanwhile, Mr Hine said that they were looking forward to welcoming Clarke’s young county-man to Melbourne next year.

The 17-year-old trialled with the Magpies in June and showed enormous potential.

“He won’t be able to commence his contract until the end of the 2011 preseason, once he finishes his school and County commitments,” Mr Hine said.

The teenager’s signing is a by-product of a process that commenced 18 months ago.

“Our team in Ireland have done a lot of work with Caolan over a 6-8 month period,” Hine said. “I personally viewed him at the MacRory Cup semi final at Casement Park in Belfast which ironically was the same venue and same game where we first viewed Martin Clarke.

“On the back of his MacRory semi final performance and subsequent meetings with Caolan and his family, we invited Caolan to Collingwood for a month trial.  As a by-product of that trial we are really comfortable offering Callum a two-year international contract commencing with the 2012 season.

“Caolan’s testing for speed, agility and vertical jump places him up at the very high end in comparison to our playing group. This coupled with Caolan’s ability to quickly adapt to the skill traits required for AFL which our development coaches Luke Beveridge and Paul Licuria observed and tested throughout his stay.

“Caolan’s performance was exciting given he has never had any exposure to structured training programs before so the pure scope for improvement is enormous once he enters our system full time.

“He really brings a point of difference with his sheer power and speed.

“Caolan comes from a terrific family who are very supportive.  It’s a dream come true for him to play professional sport and we are really excited about him.

“It is very important that we continue to develop alternative talent pools to support and sustain our playing list given the introduction of the two new franchises in 2011 and 2012,” Mr Hine concluded.

Richmond hopes the luck of the Irish can replace its horror run of luck at the tribunal, calling up Irish rookie Jamie O’Reilly to the senior list, the Daily Telegraph reports.

O’Reilly was invited to train with the Tigers last year after being spotted by recruiting manager Francis Jackson playing Gaelic football for County Down.

He has been groomed as a rebounding half-back/midfielder, and has played 11 games for the Coburg seniors this season.

O’Reilly, Richmond’s first Irish recruit, will be joined by Robbie Hicks, the Tigers’ first pick in last December’s rookie draft.

The pair replace midfielders Nathan Foley and Adam Thomson, who have both been placed on the long-term injury list and won’t play again this season.

Tigers coach Damien Hardwick has said his focus is on development for the future and he is keen to give game time to as many of the players on the Tigers’ list as he can before the season ends.

Tadhg Kennelly launches his autobiography at Borders bookshop in Bondi Junction on Thursday, November 19 at 6.30pm

by Irish Echo Staff

The Sydney Swans have announced that Tadhg Kennelly has accepted a new two-year contract with the club.

The news ends the speculation about the player’s future after the Irish Echo broke the story last week that the Kerryman was set to make a sensational return to the Swans, the club with which he won a Premiership medal in 2005.

After spending a considerable time making that decision, Kennelly will return to Australia next week to officially launch his autobiography Unfinished Business and at that time, commence training with the Swans.

“It is fantastic news for the Club that he has decided to resume his career with us as he has been a really important player for the Club,” CEO Andrew Ireland said.

“We obviously understand his desire to go back and win an All-Ireland final, and it was fantastic that he was able to achieve it so quickly and emulate the feats of his father.
“As always we appreciate the tough decision it is for Tadhg to come back to us, as he ultimately ends up being a long way from his family.
“We are delighted he has agreed to a two-year contract and look forward to having him join pre-season training next week.”

Sources close to the player in both Kerry and Sydney told the Irish Echo that the 28-year-old was set to announce his return to Australian Rules football before the end of November.

Since then, the chairman of the Kerry County Board Jerome Conway, confirmed the news.

“Tadhg has notified us officially that he is returning to Australia. I suppose as things were turning out over the last few weeks, it is no great surprise to us now,” he was quoted as saying.

“He did very well while he was here. He fulfilled his burning ambition to win an All-Ireland senior medal and emulate his late father. He certainly helped Kerry’s cause in a big way this year.

“His contribution as a coach out in North Kerry has been invaluable. He left a lasting impression with the youngsters he came in contact with.”

Kennelly’s decision to return to Australia will come as a major blow to Kerry with Tommy Walsh already committed to St Kilda and David Moran hoping to secure a similar deal.

The Listowel man owns property in Sydney and his long-term girlfriend Nicole Noonan still lives here.

Irish Echo efforts to contact the player failed.

Kennelly will appear in bookshops in both Sydney and Melbourne next week as he promotes his biography, Unfinished Business.