Kevin’s successful retirement u-turn

After leading the Belfast Redbacks to a sensational AFL Europe Champions League title in Paris last year and the Irish men to continental glory, Kevin McSorley announced his retirement from Australian Rules Football in April 2023.

Even though he was only 38 at the time the Newtownstewart native, who started his Aussie Rules career while a student at Queen’s University in Belfast before experiencing some club action in Melbourne, had more than earned the right to make that decision. And signing off at the top, on the back of those two incredible achievements – the latter coming with him as national team captain, winning the continental crown 10 years after achieving the same feat for the first time – seemed like a fitting conclusion.

It looked as though, after a two decade-long playing career, during which time he won six AFL Ireland Premierships (one as coach following an operation), two AFL Northern Ireland titles, one AFL Europe Champions League crown, two Euro Cups and two silver medals from the same tournament, two European Championship (one as captain) wins and one runner-up finish, a Euro Cup Golden Boot and team of the tournament inclusion, a World Cup silver medal and a ‘best on ground’ award in a World Cup quarter-final, as well as representing Europe on several occasions, his boots would be hung up for good and he could look back with pride on around 20 years of unrivalled success.

However, the decision by one of the most decorated Irish Aussie Rules players ever, who also enjoyed an impressive tenure as AFL Ireland president, proved to be short-lived as within six months the boots and the ‘guernsey’ were back on and he was raring to go once more.

Since making his comeback, the Cookstown-based father of two has helped the Mid Ulster Scorpions win the AFL Northern Ireland Winter League, which comes with Champions League qualification, he has been named on the home nations masters team who will take on their Australian counterparts in London in March and he’s keen to once more compete at international level with the European Cup scheduled for the summer, while he will also represent the London Wild Cats this season.

It’s a busy schedule for someone who was supposed to have retired from Aussie Rules, but he admits that after a lifetime of involvement in sport and particularly the camaraderie that stems from that, it was just too much of a wrench to stay away.

“My retirement lasted about six months or so, but it’s hard because you miss being about,” he explained. “I hadn’t intended making a comeback but it starts out as coming back for a social thing because you miss your mates, going back to training to keep fit and then it goes from there.”

The first major event on his schedule is the Masters clash in London which will see a combined team of Irish, Welsh, English and Scottish players taking on their Australian counterparts, who will then come to Ireland to compete in a compromised rules series after the one-off Aussie Rules encounter.

And while McSorley, who will be joined in the team by his Redbacks colleagues, Strabane’s Kyle Devine, Gerard Walls and Dean Skinner, is looking forward to the match at Peckham Rye on March 23rd, he admits that it will be a tough ask to beat the Aussies on this occasion.

“Since AFL Europe have come in, they have organised loads of things like this and it’s been brilliant,” he explained. “I remember years ago I was part of a European Legion representative team against the under-21 Australian Academy in London and Copenhagen and now this is the other end of the spectrum – from the young guys to the old!

“I was looking at [the Australian team’s] Facebook page and they have been training away. They are also playing the GAA masters over here in a compromised rules series and they have been playing together and training together for a few months to get ready for this trip, while we’re just getting together on the morning of the game!

“They have some quality players, they will be good, so it will be a great experience.”

Then, in April, he will travel to Lyon in France with the Mid Ulster Scorpions, hoping to add a second Champions League title to his list of accolades. And he admits he and several of his team-mates are going into that tournament with something of an axe to grind following an end of season row last year within AFL Ireland that saw the Redbacks denied the chance to defend their title due to a player eligibility issue that has left a sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths.

“I reckon we’re in with a good shout [of winning in Lyon],” he enthused. “We’ve recruited well, we had a lot of new faces come in over the winter, with a few guys coming in from the Rock and Eglish and clubs like that and a couple of rugby lads. We have a strong spine, with some of the Redbacks lads too, which will help because last year the Redbacks won and the Scorpions were fifth when both teams were there but it’ll be interesting to go and play against Cork, who are considered Irish champions.

“Things are going well and we might have a couple of surprise packages to add to the squad too, so we’d be quietly confident.”

Following that, McSorley’s attentions will switch to representing the Wild Cats in the English league in order to stay fresh for the Euro’s in Germany, which he’s hoping to be part of for Ulster rather than Ireland following last season’s issues with the Redbacks.

“We’re hoping Ulster will have a good turnout for it,” he added. “I’m putting my hat in the ring for it for different reasons, one being the fallout and another one being if it’s training it’s training in Dungannon or Belfast not Cork, Dublin, Waterford or Galway, which makes a big difference.

“There’s nothing to say I’ll be picked but I’ll be giving it a go anyway because I’ve tried golf and I’m not the golfing type, it doesn’t scratch that itch for me, and I’ve tried coaching, so as long as the body can stick it, I’m going to keep going and continue playing.”