Katie, Kellie and Kobe are Special Ks but if you can’t see them, what then?

The announcement last week that Katie Taylor intends to fight her last fight this year reminded me of something that happened last month.

Travelling in the car on the first Saturday of February, my daughter Ida as co-pilot, we listened to an interview on Brendan O’Connor’s RTÉ radio show. It was an interesting one, even for a 10-year-old.

“Who’s that Daddy?” she asked.

I looked over at her stunned.

“What do you mean who’s that?” I asked back, thinking that Katie Taylor’s was probably the most recognisable voice in Irish sport. Except it wasn’t just the voice Ida didn’t recognise.

“Who’s Katie Taylor?” she asked.

I nearly had to pull over.

“Who’s the most famous boxer in Ireland?” I asked her.

“Kellie Harrington,” came her reply.

I was truly taken aback. But it got me thinking.

Ida loves her sport, playing and watching, and she knows her sport too – well, as much as any 10-year-old girl might. Already this year she has been in Croke Park, Pearse Stadium, St Tiernach’s Park and of course, MacHale Park, and there are followers of the Mayo football team who won’t have visited as many club grounds as she already has – but that’s just an occupational hazard of being my daughter.

So how on earth had she made it past her first decade and never heard of Katie Taylor?

My only conclusion is that it’s what professional has put behind a paywall and what amateur has kept accessible. Kellie Harrington has been visible to a younger generation who have rejoiced in her Olympic and World triumphs while Katie, since turning pro 10 years ago, has largely remained anonymous to those of us not subscribed to the worlds of pay-per-view and streaming services and dodgy box dealers.

As the saying about attracting girls into sport goes, if you can’t see it you can’t be it. But maybe what applies to the goose applies to the gander also so just like our Ida’s obliviousness to Katie Taylor, is it the case that most babies born in Co Mayo this year won’t really know who Kobe McDonald is in 10 years’ time?

That would seem a real possibility if the agreement between the Crossmolina teenager and AFL side St Kilda later this year is realised – and if his Aussie Rules career takes off as expected. And it feels like such a shame.

He has yet to play a full game for the Mayo senior football team, in fact his minutes in the past two games combined just about constitute one half of football, but already we have witnessed both what an incredibly gifted asset Kobe will be to Andy Moran’s squad this season and what an enormous loss he will be, should he then follow through with the move Down Under. I say follow through because there’s part of me hoping Kobe is already enjoying himself enough in the green and red that he might believe there exists a future at home which appeals just as much as anything a professional life in Australia could offer him.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. There were 10,000 of them in MacHale Park last Sunday, where Kobe influenced Mayo’s win against Armagh even more heavily than against Monaghan seven days before.

The two points he scored after his 51st minute introduction might seem a modest contribution when compared against the 1-4 he scored in the final 16 minutes against the Farney County but the result of that latter match had long been wrapped up by the time of McDonald’s arrival, whereas it’s not a stretch at all to suggest Mayo would not have beaten Armagh on Sunday if Moran hadn’t called upon his 18-year-old prodigy.

Think not only about his two points, one kicked off either foot when driving hard at the defence of the 2024 All-Ireland champions, but that magnificent midfield catch from Robert Hennelly’s kickout, his acceleration of pace to help set up Mayo’s second goal, scored by Cian McHale, and his determination in that late attack which ended with Sam Callinan shooting a crucial second point of the game, and McDonald packed a hell of a lot of good work into his home debut.

While describing him afterwards as an “exceptional player”, Andy Moran also stressed the importance of treating him no differently to any other in his squad and as seeing him only as part of a cluster of promising young Mayo players, like Cian McHale who marked his first league start of the season on Sunday with his second goal of the campaign and three fine points, Darragh Beirne, who kicked 2-9 in his first four starts, Sean Morahan and Eoin McGreal. But McDonald is different simply because of his plans for the future.

You just hope Moran would give short shrift to any contact from St Kilda should they wish to check in on the progress of their rookie recruit and that in a general sense the GAA behind the scenes is not cooperating with the AFL in the same way the LGFA might be insinuated as cooperating with the AFLW, at least if a report in the Irish Examiner last December about the signing of 21-year-old Cork dual player Aoife Healy to Fremantle on a two-year deal ahead of the 2026 season was to be interpreted correctly.

The newspaper quoted Fremantle AFLW list manager Darryn Fry who said that Aoife had first caught their eye during a talent identification trip to Ireland the year before, and that the club had “kept in touch with her management and watched her progress closely over the past 18 months and have been really impressed.” 

The club had kept in touch with her management! Really? What management? Her Cork football manager? Her club boss in Aghada? The manager of the Cloyne camogie team? Or by management, was Darryn Fry suggesting a 21-year-old inter-county ladies footballer already had her own agent?

“She’s tall, fast and highly athletic, with excellent repeat speed and a real competitive edge,” said Fry whose club already has three other Irish players on its books – Aisling McCarthy, Orlagh Lally, and Áine Tighe.

They’re among just over 40 Irish players now signed to the AFLW. And that’s the fear; that what young Irish girls are now aspiring towards is not to play county, but to leave their native game – and consequently the country – altogether. That fear was backed up just this week by former AFLW player Aishling Sheridan from Cavan who told RTÉ that: "I know from talking to underage players in Cavan, who are very talented footballers, if you ask them their goal, a lot of them are saying it is to go over and play AFLW. It’s not to represent their county at senior level or to win an All-Ireland."

No county in Ireland has been harder hit by the drain Down Under than Mayo, the trail originally blazed by Cora Staunton and currently trodden by the Kelly sisters, Niamh and Grace, Aileen Gilroy, Sarah Rowe, Rachel Kearns, Dayna Finn and Maria Cannon.

“I would never stop anyone going if it was their dream but I’d love it if they could consider us and the ability to play for us in their contract negotiations,” Mayo manager Diane O’Hora told the Western People at the start of this season’s Ladies National Football League campaign.

O’Hora’s tone was such that I’d like to see Fremantle or any AFLW club for that matter, try and ‘keep in touch’ with her about the ‘progress’ of any Mayo player.

“I’m not sure why it seems to be only the Mayo girls who have contracts which cannot free them up to play for their county. Other counties have players in Australia but get them back. It is a little bit embarrassing that Mayo seem to be the only county who cannot negotiate a contract like this. I feel really sorry for the girls if they do want to play GAA, that they are being denied that opportunity. It does upset me that Mayo have lost so many players like this,” she said.

As for Kobe McDonald, Andy Moran seems intent simply on doing all he can to make sure the Leaving Cert student’s first year as a Mayo senior footballer is not also his last.

“You have to put the things in place that would make it attractive to them if they want to come home and that’s all we’ll do with Kobe.

“We will absolutely shake that man’s hand when he’s going out the door and wish him all the best because he’s quiet, humble and just gets on with it.”

Exactly the sort of footballer Mayo craves.