Kerry youngster Mark O'Connor has apologised to his AFL club Geelong after he played a Gaelic football match for Dingle without permission.
The 21-year-old had returned home after the end of the AFL season and lined out for Dingle during their Kerry club championship quarter-final victory over Austin Stacks. However, head of Geelong football Simon Lloyd told AFL.com doing so is a breach of contract.
It was down to the risk of injury which would then compromise his ability to play and train for Geelong. We (told Mark) cannot provide permission for you to play in further Gaelic football games as it's a breach to his contract.
To Mark's credit, he acknowledged Geelong was his main priority and that he wouldn't do it again.
Geelong are not the only club to implement such a policy. As he revealed in an interview with Balls.ie last year, Meathman Conor Nash was told by his club Hawthorn Hawks that he was not to play for Simonstown Gaels again after playing for them last year:
"I did it on the sly. I didn’t tell the club, so that probably wasn’t the best. They were a bit disappointed! They just said ‘look, you are a professional. This is your code now. If you were to get injured..."
Other players have returned to play for their clubs in the past. O'Connor's team-mate, Zach Tuohy, has returned and played for Portlaoise.
