Cora Staunton move opens the door for others to follow

It’s something we’re used to hearing about in sport. A player, entering the twilight years of their career, decides to move abroad to earn a bit more money before they retire. It’s not a procedure commonly associated with GAA, and certainly not with Ladies Football. But then again, Cora Staunton is a player used to breaking out against the norm.

The 35 year-old recently signed a four month contract with the Great Western Sydney Giants AFLW team, making her the first international sportswoman to be called up to an AFL team.

The money won’t be anything to write home about, hardly enough to set up a retirement fund. The contracts for the top athletes in the sport would be worth about €18,000. But Mayo senior ladies football selector and UL manager, DJ Collins says that the professional move is about much more than just the wages.

“For me, the money wouldn’t even be the issue. It’s the chance to live a professional lifestyle, to train especially and experience that kind of life. If you look at the money that’s in the women’s game at the moment, you’re not going to be rich or make a living off it”.

Gaelic @LadiesFootball star Cora Staunton is now a GIANT.

Expect to see Cora in our forward line in 2018. #AFLWDraft #NeverSurrender pic.twitter.com/ns0htYREtN

— GWS GIANTS (@GWSGIANTS) October 18, 2017

It will be that opportunity to experience a professional lifestyle that will draw others to follow in Staunton’s footsteps and all to the benefit of the LGFA according to Collins.

“Not all of them will be successful. Not everyone likes AFL but what we should see hopefully is that they get to experience that professional lifestyle, see what it takes to be a professional athlete, learn how that operates and when they return home, bring that experience back into the LGFA.”

“What you might seen then is, if they stay out there for a long time and make lives for themselves and then they come home at the end of their careers and hopefully get involved in coaching with the LGFA and actually up the standards. As players they would see what is expected in a professional set-up, what it takes and see where we actually lie in that set-up.”

Having just returned from Sydney where she linked up with the Giants, one might forgive the four-time All Ireland winner if her head wasn’t completely in the game of football but she further cemented her legendary status at the weekend when she kicked an incredible 4-13 for her club, Carnacon in the Connacht final against Kilkerrin-Clonberne of Galway, a game which actually ended in a draw.

She has pledged herself to her club’s cause until December when she will make the move Down Under and despite having an inter-county career that spans over two decades, she refuses to say whether the Mayo dream has come to an end, instead delaying her decision until she returns to the West in March.

And Collins believes that it is this vast experience that will make Staunton a value asset to the AFLW side.

“They were looking to promote their game. If you look at the players they’ve drafted in before, they have a lot of young players, a lack of experience. When they hear of someone who is a household name here in Ireland that offers them that leadership and experience, they were laughing.”