Tomas Ó Sé's 'Comrá Le Tomas' series on Youtube has been a balm for anyone starved of GAA content this strange summer. Ó Sé is a natural in the presenter role and his Zoom guests have been top notch. This week he welcomed the great Colin Corkery to the programme.
Corkery's status as a GAA legend is assured, but perhaps GAA fans don't know enough about the brief stint that the Nemo Rangers man spent with in the AFL. Corkery was drafted by Carlton in the 1989 National Draft when he was 18 and played with their U19 team during the 1990 season. Here's how Corkery was described in the 1989 draft guide:
A former Irish schoolboy champion who toured Australia in 1988 with the Gaelic schoolboys team, Colin Corkery has been touted as the best of the Irish recruits.
Corkery eventually returned to Ireland, where he became a Cork football icon. Ultimately, the AFL wasn't for him. While today's GAA players might enjoy the rigorous demands of AFL training, for most GAA players from the 1990s, the culture shock was too severe.
And though he found the preseason training regime absolutely brutal, Colin Corkery found a very clever way to cheat the gruelling 10k runs that players were asked to do, as he explained to Ó Sé.
😂😂😂 “the preseason was horrendous...” Corkery at his best #comhráleTomás pic.twitter.com/QgEDIU4cL2
— Tomás Ó Sé (@tomas5ky) July 8, 2020
CC: The preseason was horrendous. They used to do a run, 10km like. They used to have trams there in Melbourne and the trams would come up to Princes Park where we were. I was always last. I was miles behind everybody but I used to get an old weekly ticket on the tram, and I used to catch up on the tram! True story! I got caught one night. They realised what I was doing it. One of the coaches came onto the tram and he was waiting for me.
TOS - And what did he say?
CC - I said 'will I put in my travel expenses for next week?' He couldn't stop laughing.
It's an incredible story beautifully told and just further proof of Corkery's genius.
You can watch the whole hour-long interview with Colin Corkery here.
SEE ALSO: An Ode To Gaelic Football's Great 'Mystery Talent', Colin Corkery
