Looking at some statistics there, very few Irish lads make it over the 50 appearance mark over there.
I think Tuohy and McKenna are the only ones with over 50 appearances there currently active. O'Connor will probably get there shortly after and the year or two will probably decide if Glass or Nash make it. Most guys just don't make it so I think with these guys it might just be that their bodies have broken down or maybe they just don't deliver on underage promise for whatever reason. It happens plenty of underage stars that never take a flight to Australia - Coney and Ronan O'Neill would be a couple of obvious examples from Tyrone.
So effectively you have 5 GAA players currently active now, 3 are established and two are kind of hitting make or break territory.
If you thrive over there and come back fit and healthy I don't see why they wouldn't take back to gaelic football like a duck to water. The problem is a lot of lads come back broken, some just don't hack it over there and don't deliver and some do come back and become key players for their county like McKaigue and Caolan Mooney.
Guys like Walsh and Kevin Dyas suffered terrible injuries over there and probably explains why they never had the right impact. Dyas was as good an underage talent as I've seen in the past 20 years and could have achieved so much more if not for injuries.
Agreed, it is difficult, mainly due to the lateness of players taking up the game, trying to learn running patterns etc. That's why a lot of Irish players play half back, its quite similar to wing back in gaelic football - mark your man when you don't have the ball, bomb up the wing and support when you do.
It feels like there are more Irish players now than ever - Glass, Nash and O'Connor (you may have missed him) have been in the best lineup for Hawks and Sydney this year and each have a chance to break the 50 games mark (it should be noted that just above 30% of AFL players to play a single game reach 50, stats from end of 2017).
In the past 15 years, you could add Setanta O'Hailpin, Begley, Ciraran Byrne.
It is true, though that there's a high attrition rate. Kyle Coney is one I often think about - won a minor AI and was highly rated in GAA before coming over to Sydney. Was only here a couple of years afaicr but don't think he had much run since he went back home at all.
Cian Hanley can't train due to his knee (I think) issues.
Coney only spent a couple of weeks out there before coming home or else he never went out full time after trials. He had a very good start to his intercounty career but had a very bad groin injury and never really kicked on from there.
At the minute there's about 5/6 guys there, 3 are fairly well established now (Tuohy, McKenna, O'Connor) and 3 are kind of at the make or break stage (Glass, Nash and O'Riordan). I do genuinely expect McKenna to pack it in at the end of the season, he's lost his place in recent weeks, has had to put up with a lot of nonsense recently and has been open about his will to return to Tyrone and homesickness so I think all the signs are pointing that way.
There's probably on average 5/6 guys who go out there every year from a GAA background and get a contract, maybe one of them makes it but usually the majority of them are home within 12 months or little more.
A lot of times these guys just don't kick on when they return and I don't think it's the AFL unless they've had some bad injury problems.
The point for me is very few make it over there and Hanley was one of the few, if his body hasn't broken down (in this case it might seem that it has) then even at 31 and probably away from the game for a good decade, I'd still expect that he could make a big impact with Mayo. The only case in point of AFL success stories returning to play gaelic football have been Kennelly and Clarke. Kennelly won an all star and AI medal on his only year back and Clarke won an all star and probably should have got footballer of the year on his first year back.
The only question mark I'd have on Hanley is whether his body is shot, if not he could still do a big job for Mayo.
