IRISHMAN Eamonn Armstrong is heading to Australia at the end of the month to join St Kilda, after signing as a Category B rookie last November.
The 18-year-old committed to joining the Saints at RSEA Park once he completed high school and will now start in the first week of July.
St Kilda's head of development and learning Damian Carroll and high performance boss Alex Sakadjian have worked remotely with Armstrong since he signed with the club to help fast-track his development from afar.
Armstrong will transition into training with the main group next month with the aim to play games for Sandringham in the VFL before the end of the season.
The County Meath product was considered the best under-21 Gaelic player in Ireland before he decided to join the AFL, standing out with his special athletic gifts and work rate.
Armstrong is understood to have grown an inch this year and is now 194cm and 95kg.
Head of talent and acquisition Graeme Allan has spent time scouring Ireland since joining St Kilda, signing Liam O’Connell in 2023 before Armstrong last year, with more to come.
Allan is heading to Dallas this month to attend the United States Draft Combine at Southern Methodist University in search of more Category B rookie options.
Armstrong will spend a couple of months in Melbourne, moving in with first-year ruckman Alex Dodson and a host family, before returning home for the off-season and then settling here full-time over summer.
St Kilda has explored Irish recruits at different stages dating back to Dermot McNicholl in 1987, who played three games for the club before returning to the Emerald Isle because his university refused to let him defer his course any longer.
Tommy Walsh joined St Kilda in 2009 and spent two years on the list without playing a game before being traded to Sydney, where he played five games in three years.
Darragh Joyce and Ray Connellan both joined the Saints ahead of the 2017 season. Connellan didn’t play an AFL game, while Joyce played 13 times for the Saints and is still on Brisbane’s list, where he has since added 11 further appearances in three years at the Lions.
The sustained excellence of Conor Nash at Hawthorn and Mark O’Connor at Geelong has kept clubs searching for the next star out of Ireland, while Callum Brown has now played 53 games for Greater Western Sydney and Mark Keane has become ultra reliable for Adelaide across the past two years.
Oisin Mullin was a two-time GAA young player of the year when he signed with Geelong and has quickly raced to 30 appearances. St Kilda will hope Armstrong can settle in and make an impact in 2026 and beyond.
