Carlow player latest to try luck in Aussie Rules

Carlow minor footballer Brendan Murphy is set to accept a two-year contract with Australian Rules club Sydney Swans.

Murphy returned from a trial with the Swans this week and informed officers of his club Rathvilly that he would be taking up the offer in the New Year.

Murphy (18) will travel to Australia in November, return home for Christmas, and then start his new life as a professional athlete.

The midfielder starred for the Carlow minors as they reached their first Leinster minor football final this summer.

He will link up with Kerryman Tadhg Kenneally in Sydney. He'll also hope to follow the lead of Colm Begley of Laois, Martin Clarke of Down and Setanta and Aisake Ó hAilpín from Cork, who are all progressing well in the AFL.

Meanwhile, Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has called on the GAA to sever all links with the AFL, after Armagh's rising star Kevin Dyas began a month-long trial with Collingwood.

"It's time for the GAA to focus on our own game. Get the Railway Cup back in that slot where that hybrid game, which I have no time for, used to happen," said Harte.

"We in the GAA should be doing nothing to encourage that. We should be encouraging people that Gaelic games is the one to play and if people do decide, of their own volition, to go elsewhere, that's fine.

"But we should have no connection with the AFL and then if people go of their own accord, so be it."