THE RECENTLY signed AFLW CBA looks set to open the door for an influx of Irish players.
The entire AFLW cohort – across all four tiers of payment – will receive a 94 per cent pay rise in recognition of the work done away from their allotted hours at clubs.
Gaelic football is strictly amateur for both men and women, with a handful of the top players receiving minor travel compensation.
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Irish women football talent ID and skills coach Mike Currane told womens.afl he has already noticed the effect of the CBA.
"The interest is still growing, I would have already been working with an elite group of Irish athletes looking towards the next few seasons, 2024 and beyond even, prior to the CBA being announced," he said.
"That's certainly led to a surge in inquiries and messages in the immediate aftermath of it. If playing AFLW was something that might have been in the back of players' minds, I think the updated CBA has certainly brought it to the forefront of some players' thoughts and the interest has definitely been piqued.
"But there was already big interest in the sport with the players who are over there at the minute, 14 last season and 22 overall across the last six seasons. We've had some coverage and highlights of the game here in Ireland over the last two years as well.
"There were some I had previously had preliminary discussions with, and I heard from them again pretty quickly and we had a lot of inquiries from new players who had just seen it. It got spread publicly across all social media, so people were aware of it pretty quickly."
Currane – who has previously coached the Irish national side – works with current and prospective Irish AFLW players, training with some over the off-season and assisting clubs with future players.
He said rapid development of current Irish AFLW players has demonstrated to prospective footballers the transition between Gaelic and Australian Football can be made.
"There are a few basic transferrable skills, in terms of catching, kicking and handling the ball. Obviously it's a different shape, but the basic skills are there," Currane said.
"Probably one of the primary things is the elite level of fitness that Irish players are operating at. It's a fully amateur sport, but only in name, other than that, the hours, the training sessions, the work, the gym, it's pretty much at a professional standard.
"So they're able to transfer over to AFLW and excel pretty much straight away. We've seen examples where Sarah Rowe is breaking the 2km record at Collingwood, Orla O'Dwyer at Brisbane, so their elite athleticism helps.
"Then it's just getting used to the game and the rules and structures, and we've seen every single season a player plays, they get better. Orla is the prime example, going from zero to an All-Australian in three or four seasons is phenomenal."
