Kobe hype greater than any other Irish export – Tadhg Kennelly

No new Irish recruit to Australia Rules football has generated the levels of hype that have followed Mayo’s Kobe McDonald since he joined with St Kilda earlier this month.

That’s according to Kerry man Tadhg Kennelly, one of the most successful Irish exports to the game.

“It’s the most (hype) I’ve ever seen … of any Irish player coming out,” said Kennelly, who first arrived in Australia 25 years ago.

“Clearly, the Mayo story, the Mayo story made the headlines here and the curse of Mayo, that was the headline and it was everywhere here, it was making national media and then the drawcard on the back of it was one of those players is actually signed with St Kilda and is coming out so that added more hype to Kobe itself and the whole mystique about who he is and what he’s been able to do at such a young age,” he told Off The Ball.

Along with the late Jim Stynes, Kennelly is one of the most successful Irish exports, winning a Premiership with Sydney Swans in 2005 and then returning to Kerry to win an All-Ireland in 2009 before returning to the professional game in Sydney the next year. He’s the only player to have done this but, with his All-Ireland already won, Kobe McDonald may well be seeking to follow in Kennelly’s footsteps.

“There is a lot of people who understand Gaelic football that are actually really intrigued by it. Certainly the St Kilda people I talk to, they’re all asking about him. How good is he? How good can he be and whatnot. So there’s a lot of excitement and if there’s one young fella who can handle it, we clearly saw it was Kobe this year, didn’t we?”