'Best I've seen' - GAA voices react to Kobe swapping Mayo for Australia

JOHN REILLY

(Kilmeena, Mayo)

It is very disappointing for the county for him to be gone. A very big disappointment for Crossmolina. He is a quality player physically, technically, great attitude on it.

But on the other side of it, he's gone in as a Category B recruit, which means he's got two years to develop.

He's going to get paid, he's getting access to education, access to nutrition, S&C, physio, medical. 

He's going to see the other side of it. Whereas you might flip the script here and say that he could end up going to ATU or maybe Limerick and he's going to have to pay his way.

You can't beat the fact that it is professionalism, and he's going to be doing his craft every day and getting better on it.

What can Mayo actually do about it in these cases? They can't do a lot.

Mayo probably have bigger problems than the likes of Sligo Rovers and Galway United, where they go picking up players U-14 and keeping them down to 18 and then getting them off their books. And they've missed out four years of development in Gaelic football.

These are bigger issues that they need to be dealing with in Mayo rather than just the one marquee player.

Because you might say David Clifford, Kilkenny, and all these guys were offered to go and they stayed home for their own different reasons.

Kobe's probably going at the right time. He's 18. He'll have two years to develop by the time then he's 20, whether he's made it or not.

And he can come home to Mayo then at that stage. He's probably better to go now and maybe not make it and then come back to Mayo.

I think people need to calm down. He's his own person. He has to make his own decisions.

And this idea of compensating the GAA and compensating clubs is neither here nor there.

We're a voluntary organisation. Coaches give their time. I don't own any player. If a player decides to go and play soccer, rugby, that's a disappointment, but it's on their time.

Australia are coming over here, and they know that we have a wealth of talent, and they're going to start picking them up.

Mayo's going to have to get on. Look, over the last few years, Oisín Mullin, Kobe, and Hanley had gone.

If we had them in shape at any time, Jesus, we'd have a serious tilt at an All-Ireland.

It's probably the best time for him to go. My feeling is maybe he doesn't like it. He doesn't like the game, and he's back by the time he's 20, and he'll have 15 years in a Mayo jersey. So we might do well out of it.