WHEN Cora Staunton was drafted to Greater Western Sydney for the 2018 season, few could have anticipated the competition-wide legacy she would go on to leave, ushering in a new wave of Irish talent. 

Her recruitment to the Giants opened the floodgates of talent from Ireland to Australia, and as she leaves the game a record 13 new Irish players have been signed to AFLW lists, taking the current tally of active Irsih players to 32 and all-time total to 41. 

While Staunton was not the first Irish player to be signed to the AFLW – inaugural Demon Laura Duryea had already been playing local footy in Melbourne for nearly a decade before the launch of the AFLW – she was the first to be specifically recruited out of the Gaelic scene in Ireland. 

For many players, the draw of the professional AFLW environment is appealing. Gaelic football at every level in Ireland is amateur, meaning players are not paid for their time. AFLW, while still not a full-time competition, is a huge step toward being a professional athlete for many Irish players. 

"I think for the majority of the girls, it's the professional environment," Fremantle forward Aine Tighe told womens.afl.  

"Just being able to have that opportunity, because sport back home, pretty much everything is amateur and over here, there's just so many opportunities… so for us, that's a big difference."

Tighe came to Australia from her small Irish county of Leitrim ahead of the 2020 season having never played footy before moving, but starred in the Gaelic game as captain for her county. A couple of knee injuries and two years on the sidelines later, Tighe finally made her debut for Fremantle in round one of season six and has played every game since.

"(In Australia) you just the immerse yourself in the professional environment, that elite level of sports high performance, that's where everyone wants to be. And that was definitely the biggest draw for me," Tighe said. 

Irish talent identification and skills coach Mike Currane attests to this, having worked with many of the Irish players who have made AFLW their own. 

"It's being able to play professionally and to be able to live as professional athletes, that's huge for all the Irish girls," Currane said.  

"They work so hard here at home, train to a very high level, they play at an elite level, but everything is 100 per cent amateur. So, everybody that has gone out so far, would see that being able to live and work as a professional athlete is the main attraction." 

In addition, players were motivated seeing the success of Irish imports who came before them. In the men's game it started in earnest with Jim Stynes and has filtered down to the likes of Zach Tuohy and Conor McKenna, and in the women's it was Staunton's immediate impact with GWS that really opened the floodgates. 

"The first time I think it really broke in Ireland was when the news came out that Cora Staunton was going over," said Collingwood midfielder Aishling Sheridan, who first joined the AFLW in 2020. 

"There was then a documentary done on her experience and then a few more Irish went over in the next year and I suppose that increased the awareness or the understanding of the game within Ireland." 

Since Staunton's debut, four Irishwomen have won a premiership medallion – Ailish Considine (Adelaide 2019, 2022), Orla O'Dwyer (Brisbane 2021), Sinead Goldrick and Blaithin Mackin (both Melbourne 2022) – while O'Dwyer has also earned an All-Australian guernsey. 

Sheridan also notes that the COVID lockdowns in Ireland, and the resulting shut down of the Gaelic leagues, helped grow the Australian game over there. 

"The way COVID worked, and knockdowns worked in Ireland, Ireland was in lockdown when Melbourne wasn't so all the like Irish TV channels, they started streaming all of our games," Sheridan said.  

"I remember my family and friends from Ireland used to be messaging me saying they're watching the game and they're loving the game. There were no sports happening in Ireland because they were in a complete lockdown. The way the TV channels here in Ireland really started to show the games it really increased the knowledge and the interest in the game." 

Culturally, Gaelic football is quite different to AFLW. Athletes play for their home county, or they don't play at all. Loyalty to their home county is a point of pride, so the chance to switch teams for greater opportunity like we see happening regularly in AFLW is simply unheard of in Ireland. As a result, the scope of a player's career is limited to one team in one place. 

In Australia, however, we have seen big name Irish recruits like Aileen Gilroy and Aisling McCarthy move clubs and make a significant impact in their new colours. 

The game of Gaelic football itself, Tighe admits is "totally different in numerous ways" to footy, but many of the basic skills are very transferable between codes. 

"Just the skills of catching and kicking, the team play, even just the positions, forwards, back, midfield, and also being able to cover the ground. The competitiveness, there's an awful lot of similarities," she said.

Currane also points to the fitness level required for the Gaelic game as a reason why Irish players are able to adapt to the demands of AFLW so quickly.

"Primarily just the level of fitness that the girls operate at, so bringing elite fitness and conditioning and speed and agility and endurance. That ability to run up and down the ground all day, effectively. We see a lot of the players playing in that halfback or wing role where they're continually transitioning from defence to attack," he said. 

While the Irish contingent doesn't fit in a neat little box of players with similar attributes playing the same role, there is a clear theme of athletic runners in those recruited from the home of Gaelic football.

Sinead Goldrick, Aileen Gilroy, and Erika O'Shea are all exciting rebounding defenders, and the type of player most envision when seeing another Irish recruit has been signed to the AFLW. Orla O'Dwyer, Blaithin Mackin, and Niamh Kelly offer similar run, albeit higher up the field on the wing. 

DOUBLE DELIGHT Dees' Irish sisters help deliver Gaelic premiership win

Rarer, however, is the ability to immediately adapt to the physicality of AFLW. Geelong's Rachel Kearns and North Melbourne's Vikki Wall were arguably the Irish recruits quickest to adjust to the hard-hitting nature of our game, while Bulldog turned Eagle Aisling McCarthy and Magpie Sheridan now boast that physicality as a hallmark of their game. 

Meanwhile Tighe has emerged as a reliable avenue to goal over at Fremantle, kicking 11 goals as the club's leading goalkicker last season and leading an inexperienced and injury-hit attacking line. 

"There's probably more specialist players, primarily forwards, starting to get recruited across the last few seasons," Currane said.  

"Vicki Wall is the prime example at North Melbourne. She's one of the best players in Ireland and she's playing a high forward role for the Kangaroos. The likes of Aisling Moloney going to Geelong would be a specialist forward, I can see her playing as a tall key forward, centre half forward. Aimee Mackin going to Melbourne, Blaithin's sister, again one of the best naturally gifted forwards that we've seen in Ireland for many years, so I definitely see her playing up front. 

"There's still always going to be interest in that kind of midfield or half-back player, but we're seeing a bit more of the natural forward starting to be looked at and recruited across last season and this season."