The OZ Factor-RTE2 9PM Sunday 5/7/09

culchie11 · July 03, 2009, 10:03:42 AM

The Oz Factor
The Oz Factor tells the story of controversial Aussie Rules agent Ricky Nixon's quest to poach the GAA of their best and brightest players to the sunshine and dollars of the Australian Football League (AFL). From an initial list of 80, Nixon trawls through the best young Gaelic footballers in Ireland to see who could make it as a pro in Oz and in the process stirs up plenty of controversy amongst followers of Ireland's national sport.

Nixon was followed in his quest for over a year and in this series viewers find out who is prepared to leave the amateur sport they grew up with and who is good enough to take the chance to fulfil their dream of becoming a professional sportsman. With GAA legend Mickey Harte as the voice of Ireland's national code and Nixon's determination to take only the best from the sport, there is no shortage of fireworks.

In the first episode, Nixon arrives in Ireland with representatives of AFL clubs to set up recruitment trials. He faces the media to answer questions about his practices while his chosen group of GAA players are brought to a training camp in Castlebar and put through their paces to see if they have what it takes to be selected for trials in Australia.

INDIANA · July 03, 2009, 10:10:05 AM

Wouldn't piss on it. Don't know why RTE are giving airtime to this clown. Because thats all he is. I don't have a problem with lads trying their hand down under. But he strikes me as a bandit.

Oisins Abu · July 03, 2009, 11:22:10 AM

I say fair play to Nixon for doing something to help these young lads on the way to becoming pro athletes, if it wasn't for him some of these lads would be used and swallowed up by the gaa county boards, at leat witht he likes of the lions, the swans or carlton they will be looked after and treated as professionals, nobody ever seems to mention how we have lost so many young lads to the lure of british soccer, how many scouts or agents are working in ireland at the moment for foreign clubs?? just because ricky is the first of his kind to be full time-ish in Ireland means he gets singled out by the media and and GAA coaches alike as a bad thing. Give it a few years and this will be the norm mark my words.

No way ref · July 03, 2009, 11:27:39 AM

Ricky Nixon is actually Colin Meaney

Jinxy · July 03, 2009, 12:34:42 PM

Quote from: Oisins Abu on July 03, 2009, 11:22:10 AM
I say fair play to Nixon for doing something to help these young lads on the way to becoming pro athletes, if it wasn't for him some of these lads would be used and swallowed up by the gaa county boards, at leat witht he likes of the lions, the swans or carlton they will be looked after and treated as professionals, nobody ever seems to mention how we have lost so many young lads to the lure of british soccer, how many scouts or agents are working in ireland at the moment for foreign clubs?? just because ricky is the first of his kind to be full time-ish in Ireland means he gets singled out by the media and and GAA coaches alike as a bad thing. Give it a few years and this will be the norm mark my words.

Do you know "Ricky" by any chance?

Zulu · July 03, 2009, 01:01:45 PM

I'm looking forward to this series and I don't see the problem with Nixon, yes he's in it for himself but the successful Irish trialists will benefit as will the Aussie rules clubs that sign them. The unsuccessful lads will be back playing football here in Ireland so where's the problem? I, like most GAA men would prefer to see the lads play football here but I wouldn't begrudge any of them a professional sports career and agents like Nixon are part of that world. It should be interesting regrdless of your opinion on this.

corn02 · July 03, 2009, 01:09:11 PM

Quote from: Zulu on July 03, 2009, 01:01:45 PM
It should be interesting regrdless of your opinion on this.

Indeed, will be a keen follower of this, should provide a good insight.

Jinxy · July 03, 2009, 01:13:48 PM

I see Martin Clarke is out of Collingwoods first team for the last few weeks.

thejuice · July 03, 2009, 02:14:20 PM

have any of the recruits in the last 7-10 years held their place on a starting team?

thebandit · July 03, 2009, 02:49:50 PM

Quote from: thejuice on July 03, 2009, 02:14:20 PM
have any of the recruits in the last 7-10 years held their place on a starting team?

Tadhg Something or other?

lob her in lad · July 03, 2009, 04:16:41 PM

I know a couple of lads who are playing out there with different AFL clubs and from talking to them the only problem they have with being 'poached' is the fact that they are so far away from friends and family. Setanta Ó hAilpín has been featuring pretty regularly with Carlton in different positons over the last number of years, Marty Clarke with Collingwood, Colm Begley with Brisbane and St. Kildas not to mention Tadhg Kennelly and Jim Stynes who both had very successful AFL careers. For people to start flying off the rails about them being lured away to a professional sport is ridiculous. How many of these will make it in what is a very tough physical game where the average career span of a player is three years? The fact is the majority of these players will come back after two maybe three years as stronger more disciplined players. Dermot McNicholl came from a stint with with St. Kilda in the early 90's to help Derry win the All Ireland and Kennelly is back with Kerry this year to help them lift sam. I would prefer if some young lad from my county went away to an AFL club for a couple of years and then came back to help us win the All Ireland is there anybody else who wouldn't want this??

Jinxy · July 03, 2009, 05:47:16 PM

There are plenty of lads who spent time with aussie rules teams in Oz, came home and never progressed as senior inter-county footballers.
I don't agree with this theory that they will automatically come back as a better player.

lynchbhoy · July 03, 2009, 05:58:23 PM

I think the Failed aussie rules footballer Anthony Tohill used his experience to improve his game and physique which benefitted Derry on his return.

Dont think that Dermott mcNicholls experience augmented his skills - possibly the opposite

Nicholas walsh of Cavan hasnt seemingly improved from going over to asutralia and playing aussie rules
some have done well, others failed and their football carreers back home have been mixed and chequered

lynchbhoy · July 03, 2009, 09:04:31 PM

Quote from: Fionntamhnach on July 03, 2009, 06:38:09 PM
To me the biggest threat to the GAA in terms of playing numbers are the likes of Xbox 360's and PS3's.

not to mention the threat and extra burden it puts on health service (paid or NHS Etc)

Quote from: Fionntamhnach on July 03, 2009, 06:38:09 PMThe main problem with regards to the AFL scouting I have is the likes of the unauthorised use of GAA property e.g. Breffni Park, and that Ricky Nixon comes across as rather arrogant and obnoxious.

well he is australian !

agree with your opinion that aussie rules isnt a threat

I dont really believe that soccer or rugby are a threat either - its a question of family preference and geographical location

HeaveHo · July 04, 2009, 07:47:23 AM

Nixon is a gigantic tool and is despised in various quarters in the AFL. He was an average AFL footballer but did spot an opportunity to become the first full time AFL player agent and held a virtual monopoly for a period. That space is now crowded and hence we find Nixon trawling Ireland for new clients. As correctly pointed out most lads won't make but they do get exposed to a highly professional sporting environment the equal of most professional sports throughout the world and apart the obvious increases in fitness and strength should become more aware about proper diet, injury management etc which should help them if they resume a GAA career.

Apart from Ireland AFL clubs have been looking to recruit players from South Africa and Fiji in recent times. Some South African recruits are playing in semi professional state leagues and none look likely to step up to AFL. There are two players of Fijian/Islander ethnicity playing in the AFL (three if you include O'Halpin) both whom are exciting athletes (one is 5'7" and one is 6'7"). Both grew up playing AFL but there appears to be a decent untapped athletic pool in Fiji and surrounds who might make the grade. Ireland will for a while will remain the primary recruiting ground for international rookies but this is likely to decrease as the money being spent developing in the game in South Africa etc starts to pay dividends by providing AFL recruits.

It has been suggested locally that AFL cubs will also start playing GAA clubs a transfer fee for any players rookie listed. At present the local club of any player drafted into an AFL receives AUD$20,000 (around 12,000 euro) upon being drafted and then additional payments are made when a player plays 50 and 100 games. This may ease the pain for some GAA clubs losing promising juniors to the AFL system. It isn't huge amounts of money but will recoup some of the time and money spent developing the junior in question.