Ailish Considine believes that any female Gaelic footballer who has the opportunity to play AFL in Australia should grasp the opportunity.
Considine is in the vanguard of Irish women making an impact in Aussie Rules and she is preparing for her third Grand Final in four years with Adelaide.
The former Clare footballer said that the AFLW offers Irish women the kind of opportunities that just aren't available in Ireland and in a week when Meath manager Eamonn Murray labelled Aussie Rules as "dreadful stuff", Considine encouraged others to make the jump.
Murray was reacting to the news that 2021 TG4 Senior Players' Player of the Year, Vikki Wall, would be following in Considine’s footsteps, and he was critical of the AFL, saying: "I don’t know why you’d want to play that sport because it’s dreadful stuff to watch. I can’t understand it. There’s no skill at all."
While Considine has a degree of sympathy for Murray who will be losing his best player, she believes that the lure of a professional set-up and a secure, paid contract is too hard to resist.
Reacting to Murray’s comments, she told the RTÉ GAA Podcast: "You can understand the disappointment to lose players from the squad and especially how Meath have been going in the past 12 months, off the back of an All-Ireland and Vikki having an unbelievable season.
"My personal opinion on managers getting frustrated and that is, it’s a bit unfair but I understand where they’re coming from.
"It’s not a hobby whereas at the end of the day Gaelic football is amateur and it is a hobby. We don’t get paid for it, it costs us money and especially as female athletes it costs us money to play Gaelic football for your county at the highest level.
"For a female sport, it’s a bit unjust to be aggravated at players for going over to take up a professional sport. That opportunity for women, it’s few and far between in Ireland. Unless you play soccer you don’t really have much of an opportunity to go professional as a woman.
"With a game that’s so similar to the game we grew up with in terms of skillset, of course Irish girls should grab the opportunity to play a new sport, to play professional and the travel the world."
Considine has been a huge hit in the AFL and is looking to win her second Grand Final since arriving in the league in 2019.
Adelaide won in Considine’s debut season in 2019 and were runners-up last year against Brisbane Lions.
"It’s been three finals in four seasons and that fourth season didn’t have a Grand Final because it was a Covid year so it’s basically three from three seasons," she said.
"It’s been incredible. This week more than the last few years I’ve kind of taken a look back at the experience I’ve had over my four seasons and how incredibly lucky I am to have the opportunity to run out for potentially a third Grand Final.
"It’s just be an absolute roller-coaster, no year has been the same and that’s probably the beauty of it, every year has been completely different.
"It’s been an incredible journey and this week has been a little bit reflective on how lucky I’ve been and how good it’s been."
Standing in Adelaide’s way this weekend (3.30am Saturday Irish time) are Melbourne, who have Dublin's Sinead Goldrick and Lauren Magee in their ranks.
The two sides met in a tight encounter in January with Adelaide running out 31-25 winners and Considine is expecting another close match.
"The [January] game was a really tough battle and a tight game, quite a low-scoring game.
"It will be much the same the weekend. It’s going to be potentially a low-scoring, high-contested game and really, really high pressure.
"Melbourne play a really nice brand of football and we just have to bring our ‘A’ game. To win we’re going to have to bring our absolute best."
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