Laois starlets head Down Under
Wednesday, 26 October 2005 12:22Laois youngsters Colm Begley and Brendan Quigley have both signed two-year rookie contracts with Aussie Rules club the Brisbane Lions.
The teenage duo stood out at trials recently staged by Lions manager Graeme Allan in Limerick and are to link up with the three-time AFL Premiership champions late next month.
Both All-Ireland minor winners with Laois in 2003 and frontliners for Ireland's Under-17 International Rules team in recent series, Begley and Quigley will make it five Irish players currently plying their trade Down Under.
Former Kerry minor Tadhg Kennelly became the first Irishman to win a Premiership title with the Sydney Swans last month, while Cork brothers Setanta and Aisake O'hAilpin are on the rookie list at the Melbourne-based Carlton Blues.
Setanta, a hurling All-Star in 2003, is set for promotion to the Blues' senior list next season having recently signed a two-year contract extension.
Begley, who made Mick O'Dwyer's senior Laois panel in 2005, is the elder of Brisbane's latest recruits at 19. The talented defender, whose services will be required by Stradbally for Sunday's Laois county final against Portlaoise, had just started an Economics and Geography degree at UCD, but is set to continue his studies in Queensland.
Quigley, a second year carpentry apprentice, is a strong-running midfielder from the Timahoe club and is ideally built for Aussie Rules at 6ft 4in.
The Brisbane Lions, a club merger between the Brisbane Bears and the Fitzroy Lions back in 1996, made history by winning three straight Premierships from 2001-2003 before losing the '04 decider to Port Adelaide and finishing a disappointing eleventh in this year's ladder.
The Lions initially went after the signature of Sean Cavanagh but the Tyrone midfielder turned them down.
Down minors James Colgan and Martin Clarke were also looked at, but under provisions for international rookies, there is a two-player cap on AFL clubs securing the services of players from non-AFL backgrounds.
