ST KILDA, Richmond and North Melbourne are set to rookie-list three Irish youngsters at the end of the 2008 season, according to reports in Saturday’s Herald Sun.

A 195cm midfielder, a forward and a “Marty Clarke-type” were identified as potential recruits among 20 of Ireland’s young Gaelic stars at a three-day camp held at Castlebar, near Galway, on the Irish west coast.

The Melbourne clubs returned from Ireland on Friday and were understood to be committed to inviting one player each to Australia in the post-season. Geelong and Brisbane also attended the camp but made no commitment to recruiting youngsters.

Conducted in the same mould as the draft camp, the exercise was organised by high-profile player manager Ricky Nixon and may help uncover future international stars in the tradition of Jim Stynes and Tadhg Kennelly.

“I’m pretty confident at least three players will be in Australia before the end of the year,” said Nixon.

“They might come out for a week or two, first just to find out if it’s for them, and you’ve got to remember it’s both ways here, the player might get here and hate the place and at the same time the clubs will have a good look at them.”

The camp included skills and psychological testing and interviews with each of the recruiting representatives from the five clubs.

“It wasn’t too dissimilar to the draft camp where recruiters were able to watch how they interact with each other.

“I was surprised how the players adapted very quickly to the kicking and the handball game,” Nixon said.

One of the stand-outs was Niall McKeever, who at 195cm, scored 14.5 in the beep test.

“He is super quick, agile and kept getting the ball [in the handball game]. He is Nick Riewoldt in size but you could play him on the wing.

“The other two vary from a big, strong forward to a small, 5’10”-type player, a Marty Clarke-type, robust and energetic,” said Nixon.

“I think the clubs were excited with what they saw.”