Setanta O’hAilplin joins the team
O’hAilpin, of Fijian and Irish descent, was born in Sydney but grew up in Ireland. He was a hurler with the Cork senior team before becoming a professional AFL footballer with Carlton in 2004.
He played 80 games with the club before moving to the GWS GIANTS in 2012, their inaugural year. He played just one game before suffering a serious knee injury, forcing him to miss the rest of the season.
“Being involved in the game for the last 10 years and being multicultural myself, I’m passionate about being a multicultural ambassador,” O’hAilpin said.
“As Australia is growing, multiculturalism is getting bigger and bigger and the only way we’re going to expand is having more ethnic groups playing our game to make it more widespread, not only in Australia but developing it outside this country too.
“Looking at myself, being of Irish and Fijian descent, it’s important to have more of those backgrounds involved; all the backgrounds that people wouldn’t familiarise with AFL.”
O’hAilpin’s role with AFL NSW/ACT will be to engage young multicultural kids through developing and implementing specific AFL programs.
His focus will be on developing the Multicultural Talent Program and mentoring multicultural players who are already in the elite system.
He will be working with the talent team to run the Multicultural Athletic Trials this month and developing the two-day Multicultural Talent Camp Program which will be held in April.
O’hAilpin will also be involved in awareness training for community clubs, focusing on the topics of diversity, inclusion, racism and discrimination.
“We’re all on an even playing field when it comes to sport,” he said.
“So getting everyone together and working together and achieving an outcome, it’s an easier process to do through sport.
“We’ve got a wide spread of people in Sydney who haven’t been involved in AFL and my role is to just get them involved in the game.”