Blow for Cork as O'Shea heads back to Australia

In a blow for Cork ladies footballers Erika O’Shea will not be available for the upcoming TG4 All-Ireland senior championship.

The Macroom star is heading back to Australia where she plays Aussie Rules Football professionally with North Melbourne (the Kangroos).

She played a key part in their promotion back to Division One of the Lidl NFL, where they only lost one game in the round-robin series to Galway to secure top-flight football for Cork next season.

They lost the league final to the same opposition, before moving on to the Munster championship.

A win over Tipperary set up a crunch tie against Waterford, where the winners went on to face Kerry in the final. The Deise came out on top, which meant that was Erika’s last game for Cork before she heads back to Australia for pre-season training.

North Melbourne won the AFLW Premiership title last season, in her third year playing in Australia.

Speaking after that win Erika said: “Winning the AFLW Premiership title with North Melbourne is something that I never thought I would be able to achieve when I first came out three years ago. To be able to win the Premiership, it is incredible and it is something that I will always remember.

“Although it was a challenging year for me, it was the most rewarding. To be able to have that success and experience, I will carry it with me for the rest of my life.

“It was an amazing season for us at North Melbourne to go undefeated and that is something that has never been done before. Also winning the club’s first Premiership for the women’s team, to add that to the list of things we achieved this year was unbelievable.

"But in the future, I am hoping to come home to Cork and have a few years of playing and win an All-Ireland hopefully in Croke Park."

Cork manager Joe Carroll said that they were disappointed to see her go, but knew that it was most likely she wouldn’t be around for the championship some time ago.

“We were delighted to have Erika available for the league and Munster championship and she will be a loss to the squad for the All-Ireland series. She is a very experienced player and one that you can look to in tight games.

“All involved with the Cork ladies footballers wish her the very best as she returns to Australia.”