Dual-star McDaid relishing new sporting challenge in Australia

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

DUAL star Cillian McDaid, who headed off to Australia this week to join AFL outfit Carlton Blues on a two-year contract, says even if Galway senior footballers were in the middle of a three-in-a-row All-Ireland bid he would find it very difficult to turn down the opportunity to become a full-time professional athlete.

At 20 years of age, the world is a blank canvas for McDaid, who was an integral part of the Tribesmen’s run to this year’s U-21 All-Ireland football final, where they were beaten by Dublin. The Craughwell native has also represented the county’s footballers at senior and minor level while also winning an All-Ireland hurling medal with Jeffrey Lynskey’s minors in 2015.

Oozing talent, athleticism, drive and ambition, it was not a surprise the AFL would come calling and while McDaid is as proud a Galway man as any, he notes the opportunity to become a full-time professional player was just too great to turn down.

“If Galway were in the middle of winning three All-Irelands in a row, it would be a more difficult decision but I honestly think I would still give it a go,” he says. “Look, I have just turned 20, so in two years’ time I will just be 22 and if it doesn’t work out I think I will have gained a lot of experience. And hopefully I won’t have the travel bug anymore!”

It is not lost on McDaid that the AFL has got “bad press” for what some would describe its poaching of young and talented GAA players but he ponders just how different is this from former GAA players joining soccer clubs in England or switching allegiance from Gaelic Games to rugby, as the case with former Cork hurler and current Ireland international Darren Sweetnam.

“So, you have had GAA players who have gone on to play soccer – Shane Long from Tipperary and Niall Quinn and Kevin Moran (both Dublin) – and others who have gone on to rugby but you also have players who just drop off for whatever reason.

“Take the U-21 club championship which is only starting for some clubs now in the middle of November. That is not fair (as you will have players with some of those teams who will have gone off to play soccer and rugby over the Winter and it will mean some of those teams could be down several players). So, if one player decides to go to Australia this year, I don’t think that is the biggest problem in the GAA. I am sure though there are probably other people who might think differently.”

That said, McDaid stresses he has received nothing but support from family, friends and Galway’s GAA community – “personally, I never got anything but good wishes” – and this was a sentiment also echoed in his adopted senior football club of Monivea/Abbey and by Galway senior football boss, Kevin Walsh.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.