Replying To tirawleybaron:  "Last I checked - this was a discussion forum - If you google the full list of Irish players that have gone to OZ, and got past the initial 2 years, they eventually return with injuries that prevent them returning to full scale intercounty.

Colin O Riordan
Tommy Walsh
Jamie O Reilly (just gave up football altogether)
Kevin Dyas
There are plenty more. of the


You could blame it on the likely fact they were probably over played as young lads in Ireland. But of the lads above, only Tommy Walsh had the physical build to not be effected by the increase in muscle mass needed to do well in AFL.

There is a reason that for all the Irish lads who have gone over only Sean Wright, Jim Stynes, Tadhy Kennelly, Zach Touhy, Pierce Hanley, Mark O Connor and Conor McKenna (Conor Nash was 50% rugby player) have had proper careers out of it.
(7 of 84 so far). Of those that went and returned to GAA only 25 have had prolonged intercounty careers.

As an experiment - it is not successful as over 50% (38 of 75) of the players that go have no notable sporting career in either AFL or intercounty GAA."

Replying To TheFlaker:  "But what's the numbers you speak of? Do rural clubs produce more county players than Castlebar or Ballina? It's not a straightforward argument and varies year on year.

I challenged you because you made a daft post about Irish players going to Aussie Rules and having short careers after serious injuries out there. You ignored my posts there to give examples?"

Replying To tirawleybaron:  "Ballina, Westport, Ardnaree and Castlebar currently contain 30% of the Mayo population.
Of the 36 Mayo players on the 2023 championship squad (last full squad) - 11 of the 36 (30%) were from those clubs 4 clubs.
Thats with an unusual case of Ballina, Castlebar and Westport all being recent county champions.

Historically, Westport wasn't a GAA stronghold and the others were not always so strong at the same time.
Of the 29 Mayo players who togged out for the 2004 All Ireland final - only 7 (24%) were from the 4 urban centers.

Go check any Mayo panel where they give you the club with the players list - Castlebar/Westport/Ballina/Ardnaree are always under represented compared to their population.

Even in Dublin, the clubs within the Dublin City Council Area are under represented compared to South Dublin and Fingal.

Its not new to say that GAA was always a rural sport and soccer was the "garrison game" more popular in urban areas.
Its a natural extension of that fact, that rural clubs produce more county players per head of population - Soccer only made inroads in rural areas post Euro 88 really.

As I said, read your history."