Talks ongoing about the formation of an Irish AFLW team

Discussions have begun around the formation of an Australian Football League Women's (AFLW) team that would be exclusively made up of Irish players, according to former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire.

There were 39 Irishwomen active in the AFLW last season, with the likes of Bláithín Bogue (North Melbourne), Jennifer Dunne (Brisbane), Niamh McLaughlin (Gold Coast), Áine McDonagh (Hawthorn) and Dayna Finn (Carlton) rated among the strongest performers in the league.

Earlier this month, Kerry's Emma Dineen and Mayo's Saoirse Lally were picked up by Essendon and St Kilda respectively in the pre-season draft.

The first ever women's International Rules game between Ireland and Australia is slated to take place in June or July this year.

Now, McGuire has outlined his vision for a new all-Irish team that would be based in Melbourne or Sydney.

There are 18 sides in the division with Tasmania set to join in 2028 and, O'Riordan hopes, an Irish outfit created to make it a 20-team competition.

"As a result of the idea that an Irish team can play Australian football, last week I met with the new consul general of Ireland in Victoria for the first time, Marie-Claire Hughes, and the Irish ambassador in Canberra, Fiona Flood, and we were discussing this and it is now being discussed at AFL level and there is a genuine desire to put a 20th team into the AFLW competition when Tasmania comes in of an Irish team," McGuire told the Nine Network show Footy Classified.

"We would have an Irish team. We're not playing in Ireland. It won't be a long away trip. They'll be based probably in Melbourne or maybe in Sydney.

"We the collective football world are looking at integrating an Irish team into the AFLW.

"How would it work? Well if it works half as well as an Irish team playing in Scotland like the Glasgow Celtic (soccer club), you get serious passion at those games.

"At the moment in Australia there are 103,000 Irish-born people. There's a further 27,000 temporary Irish visas and 2.4% of the population are of Irish descent.

"Maybe (the team is called) the Melbourne Celtics."