By:
Conor Martin
Derry’s Ruairi Forbes and Offaly’s Cillian Bourke could be the latest Irishmen to trade Gaelic football for AFL after the pair received an invitation to the AFL Combine early next month.
Forbes and Bourke are among a number of players that had been gathering under the AFL Ireland talent development banner in Dublin in recent weeks for practice sessions and testing. They’ll head down under next week and be guests of honour of the AFL at the Grand Final.
Big Irish representation in Aussie Rules decider
That Grand Final is guaranteed to have Irish interest in it with Geelong, for whom Kerry’s Mark O’Connor and Mayo’s Oisín Mullin have been impressive this season. Mullin scored his first-ever goal recently as his side beat the Brisbane Lions. They are playing Hawthorn, who have Meath’s Conor Nash, contesting one of the preliminary finals (semi-finals) this weekend.
In the other preliminary final, Collingwood play reigning champions Brisbane Lions, who still have All-Ireland winner Conor McKenna from Tyrone and Kilkenny’s Darragh Joyce in their squad.
The AFL Grand Final is set to be played on the 27th September at the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground, and Geelong are 7/4 favourites with Irish sports betting sites to go all the way and win their 11th Grand Final.
Impressive pair set for AFL Combine
Forbes and Bourke will also visit a number of clubs in the days after the Grand Final and then take part in the Combine to further showcase their capacity to potentially adapt to AFL.
However, they’ve already impressed so far, as they’ve gotten to grips with Aussie Rules, reportedly impressing in the 20-metre sprint and 2km run at recent trials.
Forbes is a three-year Derry U-20 and joined the Derry senior squad and started against Armagh in the round-robin game before coming off the bench against Galway and Dublin. He is definitely one Derry player to keep an eye on.
Despite being just 19, Bourke has the potential to be a key member of the Offaly attack and was once the U20 Offaly player of the year. He featured in the quarter-final defeat to Kildare as they lost a Tailteann Cup quarter-final by a point to the Lilywhites.
The AFL began to invite Irish players to the combine in 2023, and last year another Derry player, Eoin McEvoy, was joined by former Dublin minor David Colbert; however, neither were signed by AFL clubs.
At present, there are 13 Irish players on the books of AFL clubs, but that could reduce in the coming weeks as a number of contracts run down and may not be renewed.
In contrast, Kerry-born talent Ben Murphy is expected to sign for Brisbane Lions after attracting interest over the summer.
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