AFLW Aoibhin Cleary - Welcome to Richmond

[TigermanM2]

Irish dasher Aoibhin Cleary bound for Richmond​

Meath captain Aoibhin Cleary has signed a two-year deal with Richmond.
By Richmond Media

Richmond is excited to announce the signing of its first-ever Irish AFLW player, Aoibhin Cleary, who has put pen to paper on a two-year deal with the Club.
Cleary is the current county captain of Meath in Ireland’s Gaelic National Football League (NFL).
A star of the competition, Cleary made her debut as a 16-year-old in 2016 and has since added over 75 appearances.
Cleary was named Meath Ladies Players Player of the Year in 2022 and was named as an NFL All Star for both the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
The 25-year-old was part of Meath’s inaugural All Ireland winning team in 2021 and she became a dual-winner the following season when they made it back-to-back titles.

Fellow Irish AFLW players Vikki Wall (North Melbourne) and Orlagh Lally (Fremantle) were also part of the triumphant teams, with Cleary among the best players in both games.
Cleary has also played with AFLW stars Sarah Rowe (Collingwood), Aishling Moloney (Geelong) and Niamh Kelly (Adelaide) at University level when representing Dublin City University at the O’Connor Cup.
Richmond AFLW Recruiting Manager, Trent Mosbey said the Club had been scouting Cleary closely for the past three years and believed she could fill a role as a running defender with versatility to go through the midfield.
“We are delighted to be able to give Aoibhin an AFLW opportunity for the next two seasons,” Mosbey said.
“The strengths in her game will translate well to AFLW- such as her speed, endurance, agility, running patterns and high-end work rate.
“We have been impressed by Aoibhin’s capacity to transition up and back the field. Aoibhin has also demonstrated an overhead marking ability and clean hands, her kicking skills on both feet also really caught our eye.
“She has the ability to defend, apply pressure, to win one-on-ones and has illustrated competitiveness, aggression and physicality which has been impressive to see.”

Mosbey added that Cleary, who is a qualified tax advisor having completed a Master of Accounting also displayed great character.
“Aoibhin is highly regarded for her leadership, professionalism, coachability, positive energy and strong desire to achieve,” he added.
“She has also demonstrated that she is a consistent performer week to week and performed well under pressure against the best players from around the country in big final games.”
Cleary added that it was an "extremely exciting time".
"I am so grateful for the opportunity and am really looking forward to the challenge," she said.
"There are a lot of things I am looking forward to, including learning a new game, playing in a whole new team dynamic, and experiencing life as a professional athlete.
"I can't wait."

 

[TigermanM2]

About bloody time. Good luck Aoibhin.

You have a masters in Accounting. You must be pretty reasonable in finance. Please help the club finance a VFLW program!

 

[Tortured Tiger]

Irish dasher Aoibhin Cleary bound for Richmond​

Meath captain Aoibhin Cleary has signed a two-year deal with Richmond.
By Richmond Media

Richmond is excited to announce the signing of its first-ever Irish AFLW player, Aoibhin Cleary, who has put pen to paper on a two-year deal with the Club.
Cleary is the current county captain of Meath in Ireland’s Gaelic National Football League (NFL).
A star of the competition, Cleary made her debut as a 16-year-old in 2016 and has since added over 75 appearances.
Cleary was named Meath Ladies Players Player of the Year in 2022 and was named as an NFL All Star for both the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
The 25-year-old was part of Meath’s inaugural All Ireland winning team in 2021 and she became a dual-winner the following season when they made it back-to-back titles.

Fellow Irish AFLW players Vikki Wall (North Melbourne) and Orlagh Lally (Fremantle) were also part of the triumphant teams, with Cleary among the best players in both games.
Cleary has also played with AFLW stars Sarah Rowe (Collingwood), Aishling Moloney (Geelong) and Niamh Kelly (Adelaide) at University level when representing Dublin City University at the O’Connor Cup.
Richmond AFLW Recruiting Manager, Trent Mosbey said the Club had been scouting Cleary closely for the past three years and believed she could fill a role as a running defender with versatility to go through the midfield.
“We are delighted to be able to give Aoibhin an AFLW opportunity for the next two seasons,” Mosbey said.
“The strengths in her game will translate well to AFLW- such as her speed, endurance, agility, running patterns and high-end work rate.
“We have been impressed by Aoibhin’s capacity to transition up and back the field. Aoibhin has also demonstrated an overhead marking ability and clean hands, her kicking skills on both feet also really caught our eye.
“She has the ability to defend, apply pressure, to win one-on-ones and has illustrated competitiveness, aggression and physicality which has been impressive to see.”

Mosbey added that Cleary, who is a qualified tax advisor having completed a Master of Accounting also displayed great character.
“Aoibhin is highly regarded for her leadership, professionalism, coachability, positive energy and strong desire to achieve,” he added.
“She has also demonstrated that she is a consistent performer week to week and performed well under pressure against the best players from around the country in big final games.”
Cleary added that it was an "extremely exciting time".
"I am so grateful for the opportunity and am really looking forward to the challenge," she said.
"There are a lot of things I am looking forward to, including learning a new game, playing in a whole new team dynamic, and experiencing life as a professional athlete.
"I can't wait."

Great to see the club is finally dipping its toes back into the Irish talent pool. It is an area that has been sadly neglected for some time now so hopefully this acquisition will go well.Perhaps we can look at someone for our men’s program as well.

 

[TigermanM2]

Really hope she smashes it but, boy, must be gut wrenching to lose your best player after naming her your captain only a month ago.

That's 40 of Ireland's best Gaelic women who have left their code and are now starring in AFLW with more to follow.

You have to feel for the Irish code.

 

[Wrenny]

Her first name sounds like when I sneeze.

 

[toenail63]

Very happy with topping up our list with Aoibhin, not really speculative pick anymore with so many Irish women impacting in the women's comp, and gee she's accomplished for a 25yo. Her attributes may also fill our need for a rebounding defender.

 

[TigermanM2]

Very happy with topping up our list with Aoibhin, not really speculative pick anymore with so many Irish women impacting in the women's comp, and gee she's accomplished for a 25yo. Her attributes may also fill our need for a rebounding defender.

The only thing dampening my expectation is just what sort of impact will the 40th Irish import make in AFLW? At some point the mature age talent pool has to start emptying.

But hey, low expectation can be a good thing. She has at least 2 years with us. Any impact she can make this season is a bonus and she will be a heck of a lot better in 2026. She appears to have all the physical attributes to make the transition.

I hope she has the time of her life.

 

[toenail63]

The only thing dampening my expectation is just what sort of impact will the 40th Irish import make in AFLW? At some point the mature age talent pool has to start emptying.

But hey, low expectation can be a good thing. She has at least 2 years with us. Any impact she can make this season is a bonus and she will be a heck of a lot better in 2026. She appears to have all the physical attributes to make the transition.

I hope she has the time of her life.

I'm bullish, and remain hopeful that the cupboard isn't bare yet, basing this solely on the fact that Eilish O'Dowd had the season that she had in her debut season last year finishing 4th in GWS's B&F. Tempering expectations but as the last player signed on our list this may turn out to be an astute move, albeit we are late starters, in signing Irish talent and also signing a captain of her County to boot, an additional benefit to the team having another leader amongst our ranks.

Looking forward to seeing what she can bring to our team, and to watching her progress in AFLW this year and beyond, and I think she'll be a great inclusion to the team and to our club culture, and of course hoping that she smashes it on match day.

 

[TigermanM2]

A few enlightening points in the article below.

Firstly $16k in relocation costs is massive. I wasn't aware it was this much.

The AFLW making it financially viable is obviously a huge factor. I read elsewhere that some players in Ireland are out of pocket up to 4kEur to play their game.

Brid Stack mentions the medical care available here for players is also a big factor. Her injury (fractured vertebra) in a pre season game in her first season of AFLW was horrendous, and given she was 33 at the time, she insinuated it might have been career ending had it occurred in Ireland.

Cork legend Stack sees AFLW exodus continuing​

​

• The Herald (Ireland)
• 26 Feb 2025
• COLM KEYS

The current Meath ladies football captain Aoibhín Cleary became the 40th Irish player to sign on an AFLW dotted line when Richmond announced her as their first Gaelic football recruit yesterday morning.
With the latest collective bargaining agreement, the attraction for a young Irish players to join the 10-season old Australian game has never been greater. And it’s only going to grow with more Irish players expected to be announced in the coming days and weeks.
The agreement guarantees a new Irish player a minimum of €50,000 per annum, with tier four earning AUS$67,000 and a AUS$16,000 relocation fee on top of that.
Consequently the LGFA are bleeding players. Some have contracts that allow them to see out their inter-county seasons first, among them one of the AFLW’s biggest stars, Tipperary’s Aisling McCarthy. But more will have to eschew their county colours for pre-season in Australia as the ebb of top players from the ladies championships continues.
Bríd Stack, Cork’s 11-time All-Ireland winner, who will be the feature of a Laochra Gael programme later this week, sees a real challenge for the LGFA to retain their best players in the years ahead as the AFLW benefits grow.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity, but it certainly is affecting our game, whether people want to accept it or not,” said Stack. “And it is only going to affect it even more, because while girls might feel that they can come back for little spurts and bits of the league, that will not be the case in years going forward.
“Will there be the mass exodus?” Stack wondered at the launch of the most recent Laochra Gael series. “I don’t know, can that continue? There will always be a need for Irish players.
“The LGFA has such a phenomenal product. And I’m not sure if it has kicked on from where it was a couple of years ago. So I don’t know how you actually regenerate that or how you change that.
“But it probably comes with making sure that players are not out of pocket, they are looked after, that it takes the pressure out of playing the game at inter-county level, because it’s so demanding now for players. There needs to be a little bit more benefit to playing at senior level.”
Stack feels the lifestyles and benefits are just too attractive for girls to turn down on the back of the latest agreement.
“When I first went over, I would have gone for absolutely nothing. I was just very interested to go over for the experience,” she said. “And then the second and last terms that I had over there,I was lucky that I got in at the end of it, they had agreed a massive [agreement].
“It meant that players now weren’t trying to balance part-time work. Now there are still [players] that are working part-time, but there’s a lot more that are in a much healthier position.
“Which makes it more attractive because you’re going over, you’re living this life. You’ re recovering well. You’ re getting the best of exposure to S&C coaches, just the experience in general.”
Stack endured a horror neck injury during pre-season in his first year in Australia but bounced back to spend two more full years with GWS Giants.
“I was probably lucky that it happened in Australia, if it was to happen at all. The Australian healthcare system is the best in the world. So the level of care that I received from the very start, I was exposed to the best surgeons, the best doctors, the best care, the best physios. Being in that professional environment, it definitely sped up my recovery,” she recalled.
Stack is “very proud” of the fact that she was able to recover and spend two more years with Giants in the AFLW.
As part of that magnificent Cork ladies team, Stack was never sure how well embraced they were by the Cork public. But when they staged that remarkable comeback from 10 points down to beat Dublin by a point – and win the RTÉ Team of the Year – something changed.
“It turned the tide,” she said of the 2014 comeback. “We probably had to have that comeback to really probably nail down that spot in history. “That year we got voted as the RTÉ Team of the Year, it was probably something that none of us would have envisioned, but something that is very, very special.”

 

[Phar Ace]

As an aside, even girls living outside Melb metro and moving in closer to training. etc, get a $10k relocation

 

[Cdog71]

As an aside, even girls living outside Melb metro and moving in closer to training. etc, get a $10k relocation

That’s true
And I’m not sure if it is still the case but there was a big financial incentive for first rounders (Montana Ham, Charlie Rowbottom) to move to an interstate club on their draft.

What was interesting in her interview in the Tiges site was her being enthusiastic about being a professional player.
Maybe that is the financial return and the support structures around players when the AFL allows clubs to provide all the things in the soft cap.
I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure that although Players may be able to train etc now or do extras at the club and have intra club stuff the AFL holds the reigns on when clubs can provide support staff infrastructure stuff around players.
Physios, coaches etc unless they are volunteers.


I dunno I like that.

 

[TigermanM2]

I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure that although Players may be able to train etc now or do extras at the club and have intra club stuff the AFL holds the reigns on when clubs can provide support staff infrastructure stuff around players.
Physios, coaches etc unless they are volunteers.


I dunno I like that.

I guess it all depends how far you can make a soft cap limit of $1.175m stretch.