Rory O’Carroll – Dublin
O’CARROLL ANNOUNCED his decision to walk away from the Dublin panel in January with the intention of spending time travelling before searching for employment in New Zealand. It appears he’ll be playing football for the summer in Chicago though. The three-time All-Ireland winner was sanctioned to play with the John McBrides club in the Windy City five days ago.
Several Dublin players played with McBrides last summer, including Paul Mannion, a clubmate of O’Carroll’s at Kilmacud Crokes.
Ger Brennan – Dublin
St. Vincent’s defender Ger Brennan, who won four senior All-Ireland’s with club and county, announced his retirement from inter-county football last October. Brennan will represent the Donegal club in Boston.
Tomas O Connor – Kildare
O’Connor quit the Kildare panel in April 2015, and he hasn’t been back since. The powerful forward from Clane will line out for Wolfe Tones in Boston.
Danny Neville – Limerick
After four years on the inter-county scene, Neville emerged as a regular in the Limerick attack over the last 12 months. The Ballysteen man kicked two points in Limerick’s Munster quarter-final defeat to Clare before departing to Boston, where he’ll star for Christophers.
Ronan Daly – Roscommon
Roscommon were rocked at the beginning of June by the departures of Ronan Daly and his brother Conor to the States. Ronan was a regular in the Roscommon team this year and has featured at Tadhg Kennelly’s AFL combine trials in the past. Things won’t change too much for the 21-year-old. He switches Padraig Pearses in Roscommon for Chicago’s Padraig Pearses.
Conor Daly – Roscommon
Conor enjoyed a good campaign with DCU in the Sigerson Cup, before making several appearances for Roscommon in their Division 1 league campaign. While his brother is bound for Chicago, Conor is off to Boston where he’ll play with Aidan McAnespies.
Liam Casey – Tipperary
Casey was a star with Tipperary’s minors and U21s before he made the jump to senior in 2015. The young Cahir star won a Munster U21 medal in 2015 and played in the All-Ireland final defeat to Tyrone 14 months ago. He joins Ronan Daly at Padraig Pearses in Chicago.
Jason Lonergan & Kevin Fahey – Tipperary
Lonergan and Fahey also informed Liam Kearns of their decision to opt out of the Tipperary squad back in May. The Clonmel Commercials duo were county and Munster senior club medallists last year and Casey won a Sigerson Cup medal with UCD in February. They are in Philadelphia for the summer to play with St Patrick’s Donegal.
Michael Lundy & Ian Burke – Galway
Lundy and Burke are two of the most talented forwards to come out of Galway in some time. They helped club side Corofin annex the club All-Ireland in 2015 and both moved to New York this year. Lundy will spend the summer playing for Donegal, while Burke will represent Mayo.
Donal O Hare – Down
O’Hare carried the brunt of Down’s scoring threat in 2016, kicking 2-9 as their season ended with a qualifier defeat to Longford last month. He finished as Down’s top scorer in the league with 30% of their tally. He’s going to spend the summer in New York with the club Monaghan.
Tom Cunniffe – Mayo
Cunniffe revealed in March that he had turned down Stephen Rochford’s invitation to rejoin the county squad. Cunniffe played a key role in Castlebar’s run to the All-Ireland club final in 2016 where they fell to Dublin side Ballyboden St. Enda’s. He last featured for Mayo in their All-Ireland quarter-final win over Donegal last August. Cunniffe joins a long list of players heading to New York, where he’ll represent Westmeath.
Kevin Nolan – Dublin
The man who kicked the equalising point for Dublin in the 2011 All-Ireland final is off to New York for the summer. The Kilmacud Crokes defender, who won six Leinster titles and two All-Irelands with Dublin, as well as a Sigerson Cup with DCU, will switch allegiances to the Longford club.
Paddy Keenan - Louth
Louth’s only All-Star has represented his club, county, province and country with distinction in the past. He retired from inter-county football at the young age of 29, having helped the Wee County to a Division 3 crown in 2011. He’s also picked up seven club titles in the county with St. Patrick’s. Keenan is off to play with Wolfe Tones in Boston.
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
Can’t go more than a rugby article or two without a jaded Leinster fan having a pop at other provinces. The decade of success has really gone to some heads.
@Sam Bingham: yawn
@Sam Bingham: You just made my irony detector explode
@Sam Bingham: I once witnessed a man eat his own head
@Dan P: did he just start chewing from the lips or get a knife and fork and cut bits off?
Hopefully he gets an injury free run in France and rediscovers his best form. Clearly an incredibly talented player but one of the few to be poorly managed in the Irish system.
@teuO6nLS: Dunno, his injury profile is terrible, all the timings are key points in his career.
Wishing him the best of luck for the rest of the season and his move next season. But for me he’s never fully convinced as a 10. He absolutely has had some performance in the position but he was never consistent enough. Of course injuries haven’t helped but Leinster had it right playing him at full back. I really hope the move works out for him.
@Kevin: He looked like a real live option at 15 alright. However if he had stayed, would Keenan have broke through? Sliding doors I guess…
@Kevin: Would agree, looked world class at 15, and even tho he’s excellent off the tee, never had the grit for 10 in the contemporary game, then injuries follow, etc. Kinda mad that he is so adamant about not playing at the back.
@Thesaltyurchin: Joe Schmidt and Graham Henry put it in his head that he was Irelands future at 10. He probably would have been happy at 15 other than that.
Wishing Joey all the best in France. Really hope it works out for him
@mWhSNsK2: careful Tom, a non partisan earnest comment there…wont go down well here
Most of the leinster fans on here commenting on how Leo was right to make joey a 15 would also have been saying that frawley should be an outhalf. Figure that one out
@munsterman: almost like two players with completely different profiles and skillets might be different?
Frawley’s style of play suits 10, 12 or 15 but he probably lacks the footwork and pace to be a top end 15. Carbery’s footwork was his biggest asset by comparison.
@munsterman: such differences in both players so not a relevant comparison
@teuO6nLS: surely the ‘footwork’ is handiest in tight spaces, like as a genuine breaking threat at 10?
@munsterman: I prefer frawley at centre. He’s ok at 10 but I guess he’s only played relatively few games as outhalf so it’s hard to have a fully formed opinion of him there.
@teuO6nLS: Where is the evidence that Joey has international standard DEFENCE as a 15? Advocates of the ‘Joey should play 15’ always seem to focus on what he can do with the ball from there, (which is, of course, good).
@Conor: I think what’s relevant is that Cullen saw both as utility players. Carbery saw himself as a 10 and didn’t stay in his comfort zone. He looked a high class 10 for munster too before his injuries and a fit joey probably makes a huge difference in that wc 1/4 final when sexton could barely walk
@munsterman: That’s a solid point and can’t disagree with it. The initial comparison however wasn’t. Wish Joey the best, served Leinster, Munster and Ireland well considering his luck with injuries!
And this is why Leinster players who are in demand and appreciated at home will never go to Munster again.
@Daniel O’Keeffe: why?
@Daniel O’Keeffe: you have to admire joeys ambition, he’s not happy to just sit around and collect a paycheck when he’s not getting starts in important games. The man is willing to back himself. I wish him the very best, I’d love if he stayed at munster but I’d imagine the wages he’d expect to get would be too much for munster to pay for their backup 10
@munsterman: that would make sense until you remember he was starting at 15 in the big games for Leinster and Lancaster / Cullen clearly saw him as a second playmaker from there with the added benefit of having more space to use his footwork.
@Mark Murphy: because someone who was the next big thing left Leinster and then his career fizzled out.
@Daniel O’Keeffe: I see your point but not necessarily confined to moving to Munster, Jordi Murphy and Jack McGrath’s moves north stand out too as not really helping with their international ambitions. In any case, Carbery’s injury troubles seem to have been constantly mismanaged. Where the blame for that lies is open to question. Really hope this works out for him, a superb talent.
@Carmine Lorenzo: open to question? His major injury was the ankle one, he lost a year and a half of his career with that. That happened in a pre-world cup friendly and he was still brought to the world cup just to make it worse
@munsterman: Don’t disagree there that he shouldn’t have gone. But he’s had other injuries too. Think a total break from Irish rugby will be good for him. A shame to lose such a talent however.
@teuO6nLS: The irony that Leinster are now chopping around for a decent 15 too
@munsterman: What happened to stand up and fight? He was dropped from Ireland and then couldn’t even make the munster URC squad so instead of fighting for his position he walks away. That’s not ambition.
@Fagin Strauss: if he was viewed as the next big thing he wouldn’t have moved. Players leave Leinster to get more game time. If he was viewed as the next big thing, game time would not have been an issue. He left because he didn’t want to play 2nd fiddle. I think every rugby fan in Ireland is disappointed that Joey never reached his potential at Munster. Maybe Munsters game didn’t suit him, but I read somewhere he has only managed 61 games in 5 years… Injury had taken it’s toll. An injury free run and hopefully he’ll discover his true form. Good luck to him.
@Carmine Lorenzo: pretty much all of his injuries since the ankle were picked during play. So I don’t think they could have been mismanaged by anyone. It’s just bad luck.
Carbery should have been big enough and brave enough to stand up to Schmidt. ‘I’m not leaving Leinster, I’m staying’. Instead he meekly capitulated and did as he was told. Such a waste of talent, he was talented but signing for Munster had a catastrophic impact on his career. It never worked out for him there.
@Aidan Farrell: By all accounts if you read between the lines, Ross Byrne did defy Schmidt by not leaving Leinster but he doesn’t exactly have a bucket load of caps to justify it either. in any case, Ross has played lots of times for Leinster each season in that time and has medals too so definitely made the right call staying.
@Aidan Farrell: did as he was told?
Did Joe sign his contract?
@Carmine Lorenzo: where are you getting that?
@Carmine Lorenzo: Ross is a man of character and conviction. He was never going to be bullied into leaving. A way stronger character than Carbery.
@Aidan Farrell: did as he was told???? Meekly capitulated??? Some people put some amount of nonesense on this. IRFU/Schmidt wanted him to move to Ulster to replace the recently sacked Paddy Jackson, Carbery said, didn’t capitulate, or do as he was told, in fact he said No and asked to move to Munster instead. Doesn’t suit some people’s narratives but Carbery chose to go to Munster.
@Aidan Farrell: it wasn’t mentioned in this article but in others from the same presser that he wanted to leave Leinster as he was not happy playing behind Sexton and only playing when Johnny was rested or injured.
@Aidan Farrell: lol, what a coward you are.
Jofus Carbery is a class act. Brilliant at times at 10 or 15. I love him @ 15 though. His luck will change in France I guarantee you. He’ll cut defences to bits. Can’t wait actually. Will be watching every Bordeaux game.
@Jofus Soap: hopefully but doubtful
@Jofus Soap: I can see it! Rooting for ya Joey
Never seemed to have the personality to be a class 10 and he struggled to stamp his authority on any team he led at outhalf , coaching wise he would have been better staying at 15 or maybe even being a 9. Don’t think it was a Munster issue with him , others have done well with the move ( Conway , Beirne etc )
@Owen ODonoghue: Beirne didn’t move from Leinster to Munster. Jones did and again it was s success.
@Ciaran Kennedy: my bad , Beirne was from Scarlets I think , agree Felix Jones was great too
I really hope he does well over there. And I think if he stays fit he will.
For all the comments about decisions by Irish rugby and Leinster, all the decisions made were justifiable at the time.
Carbery’s issue over the decade has been his injury profile. For his sake I hope this improves in France.
Don’t like too say, good player but not hard enough for test rugby
@John Kennedy: 37 caps means he was more than good enough.
@Johnny Knox: seems very injury prone.
@Johnny Knox: most of them off the bench , games he started he was anonymous except maybe the Fiji game where they took him out
Sure he was offered a chance to go to Ulster but opted for Munster – I’m sure he regrets that now – or maybe not?! Hopefully he will do well in France. He never really made the breakthrough into the international team and then had a few injuries.