Paul Earley (born 3 July 1964) is a former Irish sportsman who played

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

for

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL) and

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

for the Roscommon county team. Earley was the first player recruited from Ireland to play a VFL match, beating

Sean Wight John Phillip "Sean" Wight (15 March 1964 – 30 June 2011) was an Irish-Australian Australian rules footballer in the VFL/AFL. He is a member of the Melbourne Football Club Hall of Fame and was named as one of the 150 Heroes of the club durin ...

who was also listed by Melbourne at the time. He made his only appearance in Melbourne's last game of the

1984 VFL season The 1984 VFL season was the 88th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 31 March until 29 September, and comprised a ...

, when they lost to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

by 28 points at the

MCG The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the el ...

. Due to family reasons, Earley returned to Ireland at the end of the year and rejoined

Roscommon Roscommon (; ; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60 road (Ireland), N60, N61 road (Ireland), N61 and N63 road (Irelan ...

, with whom his elder brother,

Dermot Earley Snr Lieutenant-General Dermot Earley DSM (24 February 1948 – 23 June 2010) was a high-ranking military official in Ireland and with the United Nations. He was the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces from 2007 to 2010. Early life and education ...

, played. He was named as a full-forward in the 1985 GAA All Stars team and represented Ireland in the 1987 International Rules series. The former VFL footballer then played in Roscommon's 1990 and 1991 Connacht Championship winning teams. Earley later managed both Allenwood and

Celbridge Celbridge (; ) is a town and townland on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is west of Dublin. Both a local centre and a commuter town within the Greater Dublin Area, it is located at the intersection of the ...

. Earley has worked as a commentator for

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports Media is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland and in Tbilisi, Georgia, broadcasting throughout select Eurasian countries, and the Philippines. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Iris ...

. Since 2014, he has worked as a commentator for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. On 4 February 2013, Earley was announced as the new manager of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. His tenure with Ireland was reasonably successful - he is most noted for leading the country to record-breaking victories over

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

to win the

2013 International Rules Series The 2013 International Rules Series (officially the 2013 Irish Daily Mail International Rules Series) was the 17th International Rules Series contested between Gaelic footballers from Ireland international rules football team, Ireland and Austral ...

title. He returned to the coaching role for the 2014 test match, though oversaw an Irish squad which fell 10 points short of a star-studded Australian team.

References

*Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Earley, Paul 1964 births Living people Gaelic footballers who switched code Gaelic football managers Gaelic games commentators Ireland international rules football team coaches Irish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Irish players of Australian rules football Melbourne Football Club players Michael Glavey's Gaelic footballers Roscommon inter-county Gaelic footballers VFL/AFL players born outside Australia Broadcasters from County Roscommon

See also

References

External links