Clubs to decide on Cusack Park sale

Clare clubs will decide whether to accept an offer from developers for Cusack Park next Wednesday. At last night's meeting of the county board, the consortium behind the offer made a presentation to delegates, who were asked to return to their clubs and determine opinions on the proposal.

The sale, if approved, is expected to be worth between €84.4 million (depending on the extent of any planning permission granted) for the GAA in Clare, although the development of a new venue will have to come out of that.

There were some misgivings about the time frame involved given that details of the proposals hadn't been widely known in advance.

The general question of whether to dispose of the historic venue, covering 10 acres in the centre of Ennis, has been under consideration for the past two years but this is the first detailed offer to be put before delegates.

The consortium, known as the Aisling Chíosóig Partnership, says the project represents an investment of €350 million and the creation of 1,000 permanent jobs.

Whereas no planning permission has yet been granted it is believed the consortium, consisting of the builder Bernard McNamara and property developers Noel Connellan and Seán Lyne, is unlikely to have invested the amounts it has in adjoining lands without being confident of securing permission to develop.

In return, the county board are to receive a new venue, planned for location within about a mile of Cusack Park, near the town's railway station.

The new venue is also expected to house a centre of excellence coaching facility and administrative offices for the county board.

Meanwhile, in Australia there have been further developments concerning the growing Irish contingent.

Last season's Carlow minor captain Brendan Murphy has been presented with the Ron Barassi scholarship by the AFL legend, who captained the first Australian Rules team to visit Ireland, in October 1967.

He is the first player since his Sydney Swans' team-mate, Kerry's Tadhg Kennelly, to win this scholarship.

"I'm living with Tadhg in Bondi which has been good," said Murphy, who this week was added to the Swans' rookie list for the season ahead, in an interview with afl.com.au.

"Tadhg is very well known back home so that's been good and it's helped me settle in.

"I suppose the tackle is the main difference. Training is tough but I haven't played a game yet but presumably that's tougher. I'm getting used to the ball."

Kennelly said the main problem for the promising Rathvilly footballer, who will study at the University of New South Wales, would be the acquiring the extra weight.

"He's got great pace and he's killing it in the running - for a big man it's a real asset. But he's probably going to have to put on 10 kilograms.

"He could play a key position as a half back or half forward. We don't need to flog him, we just need the coaching staff to help him with his kicking, where to run.

"The one thing that's going to hold him back is putting weight on. He needs to be able to hold his own against those big centre half forwards. It's very hard to put on 10-12 kilos in one year. But he seems very driven and that's the thing that's most important.

"We've had players out from Ireland and they just haven't been driven enough. So that's a good start.

"For Brendan, he's going to learn how to be a professional athlete and experience another culture, save a few bob and learn through his studies, which he can fall back on later if need be. It's a win-win situation."

Still in Australia, another Irish rookie, Armagh's Kevin Dyas, now with Collingwood, has received 10 per cent of the votes cast on the AFL's official website in a poll on the topic of which draft selection is expected to have the biggest immediate impact this season. That puts Dyas in third place behind runaway choice Scott Welsh of the Bulldogs.

Defending Leinster colleges senior football A title holders St Patrick's of Navan beat Portmarnock CS by 5-9 to 0-3 at Páirc Tailteann yesterday.