Conor Meredith, 18, and Niall McKeever, 17, are the first pair of arrivals from player agent Ricky Nixon's recruiting exercise which saw representatives of several AFL clubs travel to Ireland in August to test some of the country's best footballing talent.
They will spend two weeks in Melbourne – Meredith training for a week each with North Melbourne and Richmond, and McKeever with the Tigers and St KIlda, according to The Age newspaper.
A third player, James Kielt, will arrive in a fortnight for trials with North Melbourne and possibly St Kilda. Another two players will arrive for trials later in the month but Nixon would not reveal their names.
As well, Tom Parsons , the youngest member of the Irish International Rules team that twice defeated Australia last month, has remained in Melbourne after the series and is due to meet with Nixon to discuss the possibility of an AFL career. Nixon said there had been "significant interest" in the tall, athletic onballer from several clubs.
Meredith is a tall full-forward in Ireland but his running ability is more likely to see him play as a half-back in Australian football. Nixon said he was one of the best natural kicks of the oval ball he had seen.
McKeever is "a gangly six-foot-six-type", compared by Nixon compares Nick Riewoldt. "He ran a 14.5 beep test for us which puts him in elite AFL category and he has barely done any training."
Left-footer Kielt is considered a centre half-back prospect.
"It's important they come out here, get a feel for Australia, show what they can do and meet with the coaches," Nixon said. "We are trying to make sure that the ones that get signed up are a reasonable chance to make it."
Richmond football manager Craig Cameron said the Tigers were excited about the possibility of signing their first international rookie.
"We had a look at them over there in August," he said.
"Now in Australia we want to see how they shape up compared to our guys, have our coaches and fitness guys look over them and see if they've got the requisite skill and athletic attributes, but also to give them a taste of what Australia and life as an AFL footballer is like.
"We are working out whether Ireland is going to become a long-term recruiting market for us and this is only our first step in the process."
North Melbourne chief executive Eugene Arocca was also excited about the chance of signing the club's first international rookie, saying foreign-born players added interest to a club.
"I was involved at Collingwood in getting Marty Clarke and Kevin Dyas … the only issue is distance," he said.
"You can bring in young men with the base skills that they have and work with them to develop and outstanding result. The longer-term challenge is hanging onto them … the lure for these men to return to their homeland is very strong."
