Dooley destined for Down Under

Christmas came early last week for Kildare LGFA All Star, Neasa Dooley, when it was confirmed that she is to be the latest Irish recruit for Brisbane Lions for the AFLW Season 2025.

This is a dream come through for the Athy player as she has told this newspaper on numerous occasions of her ambition to sample the women’s professional game in Australia.

Despite holding that ambition to play Down Under, when the call came, it came as a surprise for Dooley as she told the Kildare Nationalist this week.

“I received a message from Craig (Starcevich), the Head Coach of the Brisbane Lions, asking if I would be interested in heading over to play AFL with Brisbane. He was actually at one of our games during the Leinster championship, supporting Jennifer Dunne from Dublin, one of the Brisbane players at the minute. He got in contact with me afterwards and it all kind of sparked from there, really,” she told us.

Explaining her interest in the AFLW Neasa Dooley said, “I think it's a lot of girls’ ambition is to play at a professional level, even semi-professional level. Obviously, girls are very dedicated and committed to the ladies football here in Ireland and they give their all to it. To do the same thing and do it at a more professional level is something that a lot of girls do think of, especially me anyway.” 

“I've just been lucky enough for it to actually come through and to get the chance to give it a go. I'm really happy to get the opportunity and hopefully give my best when I get over there,” she added.

What was her reaction when she did get that call, we wondered? 

“Definitely, a big surprise and a big shock. I was playing that game with no thoughts of anything AFLW. I just going to play Dublin in the Leinster Championship and then to receive that message a couple of days after.” 

“It took me a while to open the message I was in that much shock,” she laughed. 

“When I did eventually, I was thrilled.” 

Although it took a while for everything to be confirmed because Brisbane Lions were fully involved in the League in Australia, Neasa Dooley was happy with how the deal was handled. 

“The contact has been really great from them and the support already that I've gotten from them is really good. Brisbane were in their season for the last few months and unfortunately they just lost out to North Melbourne in the Grand Finals. It was kind of on and off conversations every couple of weeks.” 

Jennifer Dunne of Dublin and Brisbane Lions was a great support to Neasa Dooley in making her decision to sign for the Lions. 

“Jennifer and I met up one day for lunch. She was really good to me. She texted me and said, meet up and have a chat. I got to ask her loads of questions and get her insight on it as a county player going over to play at that level and she give me a few pointers and a few tips. She was really good, really helpful,” Neasa said.

The Dooley family are a very closely knit unit but they were very supportive of Neasa’s decision to head Down Under. 

“They were very happy. Yes, a little bit scary at first, the same as myself. But it’s all guns blazing there now organising to head over themselves,” she laughs again.

Brisbane Lions begin their preseason in the middle of May and the League starts in the middle of August after which there will be 12 games in 12 weeks but that allows Neasa Dooley to continue to play club and county LGFA until the early summer. 

“There’s a job to be done here as well,” Dooley explains. “We have fantastic S&C coaches and a fantastic new management, who are getting us to a level that we need to get at with the work to be done. Our S&C coaches are brilliant, I’m just doing gym and conditioning with them.” 

Neasa Dooley looks back on her Kildare career very favourably. 

“I look back with a big smile on my face,” she said. “Obviously, we had the fantastic year of 2023 with the three titles and to bring that into 2024 with the Division 2 title as well, it was a phenomenal 12 months.” 

“Previous to that you have to think of the bad days as well, that got you to the good days. It's been my whole life really, good days and bad days but very successful days too.” Neasa is very grateful for the support she received from her club throughout her career. 

“Club is where it all stems from so a manager is there to help out a lot. Even just the club support in general, when it comes to the county level, is fantastic. They give a lot of support to their county girls, whether it's training nights or whether it's little events or coming to support big games and that's definitely very central,” she told us.

Neasa Dooley is looking forward to Christmas and to what the New Year will bring. 

“I'll definitely enjoy the Christmas as much as I can,” she laughs. 

“After that, in the New Year, we'll get a little bit of training in, mainly skills, work with the new ball. From there, once the four or five months come along, then I’ll be heading over and getting into the real business,” 

Neasa said before explaining that she expects to be playing “around the middle of the field, kind of on the wing area.” While Neasa will have familiar faces in new teammates Jennifer Dunne and Tipperary’s Orla O’Dwyer she has the added comfort in that her brother, Ronan, is currently living in Brisbane. 

“He sends loads of pictures, really nice ones, of the sunny weather and the blue skies. I’ve definitely done a lot of Google research on what it's like in Brisbane as a whole but also Brisbane Lions as a team. I can see nothing but good things and great things, so it definitely makes me really look forward to it,” she concludes.

We wish Neasa a very good season with Kildare in the New Year and an equally successful one when she joins up with Brisbane Lions in the summer.