GAA: Setanta Ó hAilpín has agreed terms with AFL club Carlton. The deal was finalised yesterday and the Young Hurler of the Year will shortly join his new clubmates at a training camp down the Victorian coast from Melbourne.
"We've got an agreement between the club and Setanta," said Carlton media officer Ian Coutts. "He's joining for two years and will be included as an International Rookie by the Friday deadline. He'll be training with us until December 19th and then probably go home for Christmas. He'll be back to start full-time training with us in January."
Ó hAilpín is quoted on the Carlton website as looking forward to the challenge after a memorable debut year in senior hurling, which saw him named young hurler of the year and an All Star.
"I had a good season and picked up two awards, which I was honoured to get. It's great for myself and for my family and the opportunity I have now is even bigger," he said.
Referring to Ireland's best-known exports to the AFL, Jim Stynes and Tadhg Kennelly, as "a big inspiration", he added Kennelly has already phoned him to wish him all the best.
"As Irish people do, they look out for each other and I'd like to thank him for the phone call and hopefully we'll meet up one time. He's one of my main admirations in footy and Jim Stynes as well, but now that Tadhg Kennelly is playing, I look to him as an Irish fella and as a countryman.
"The biggest thing that drove me here is the way that AFL is professional and I'd like to see myself as a professional player in the years to come," Ó hAilpín said. "They train hard, but at the end of the day, you've got to earn your crust of bread and people have got to work."
Coutts refused to be drawn on a timetable for the player's graduation to the senior side.
"We all believe that's a difficult task and don't want to put pressure on him by talking about a timeframe but the coach has been really impressed by him. His fitness is pretty good and we know he has some learning to do."
It took Kennelly two years to move up to the first team at the Sydney Swans and Ó hAilpín will have a lot of acclimatisation work to do with the oval ball as well as physical work in the gym.
GAA president Seán Kelly wished Ó hAilpín well and dismissed fears that the association might be facing an exodus to the Australian game or that the International Rules series was becoming a shop window for the GAA's best players.
"He's a free agent and entitled to do what he wants. I wish him luck and hope he makes it. I think it's significant that he's a hurler and not a footballer. Nothing happened in relation to the International Rules tour to cause him to go.
"Very few have gone and stayed apart from Jim Stynes, Seán Wight and Tadhg Kennelly. Once it doesn't develop into a trend I'm not alarmed. But he is a loss as a role model who captured the imagination of hurling followers this summer.
"If more went we might have to talk to the AFL but fear is one thing and reality another. This hasn't actually happened."
Kelly was at the launch of the Croke Park annual, a new publication that looks back on the year and includes features and match reports from the matches at the headquarters venue. It is available now and costs €10 (or £7).
Another county to suffer the emigration of a championship regular is Kildare whose full forward Stuart McKenzie-Smith has left to live in Canada for the next year. The Sarsfields player made a favourable impression during his first championship in which the county reached the Leinster final.
It has been confirmed Anthony Tohill has retired from intercounty football. The Derry All-Ireland winner announced yesterday he wouldn't be available for Mickey Moran's panel next year. One of the best midfielders of the 1990s, Tohill had been troubled by injury in recent years.
