MIDWEEK IN THE south Mayo village of Kilamine, and unfamiliar flags are being tied to the lampposts.
In the past, red and green was the only scene here. Not only for Mayo, but the local club also play in the same colours.
Instead, the navy blue and white of the Geelong Cats are proudly flying in honour of their famous son Oisín Mullin.
It’s the Australian Rules Grand Final week, 100,000 people packed into the Melbourne Cricket Ground, enjoying the mid-spring weather to see Geelong Cats up against Brisbane Lions this Saturday.
The Irish invasion of the AFL has deep roots, but this final stands out with the scale of Irish representation. For Geelong, Mullin is playing in his first final, while it is final number three for Mark O’Connor of Dingle and Kerry.
It might have been even greater as on the Brisbane Lions side, Darragh Joyce of Rower-Inistioge and Kilkenny has been named as an emergency sub, while Conor McKenna of Eglish and Tyrone has fallen well out of contention after his big impact at the tail end of last season.
O’Connor’s triumph in 2022 came alongside Zach Tuohy, when they became the second and third Irish players to win the title, after Tadhg Kennelly in 2005. McKenna became the fourth last year.
On Saturday morning, the senior panel of Kilmaine will gather around a big screen for the ‘bounce down’ at 5.30am. At half-time, they have caterers lined up to grab some breakfast.
His parents Jarlath and Noreen were brought out some weeks ago by the club to stay in Melbourne and take in a few games as the season entered business time. It was an open ticket and they hung around to see their son and his team mates progress to The Big Dance. His brother Jarlath has been out there for the past year anyway.
Last weekend, Kilmaine were beaten by Kilmeena in the Mayo intermediate championship quarter-final, 0-20 to 1-12. With Oisín’s brother Kevin at full-forward, the joint manager Alan Burke told him to swallow his disappointment and get on the next available plane to join his family in Australia.
What a time for Oisin Mullin to kick his first AFL goal! pic.twitter.com/SxjpOKAelS
— 7AFL (@7AFL) September 5, 2025
Having lived in Perth for 15 years before returning home and taking up two of the most pressured jobs in his home club – joint-manager and treasurer, Burke knows all about the AFL, having attended two Grand Finals in his time.
“It is one of the biggest sporting occasions in the world on Saturday morning.
“It’s guaranteed that there will be 100,024 people at that game in the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It’s one of the biggest crowds in the world.”
It’s not just one of the biggest days in the global sporting calendar, it’s the jamboree around it too.
“On Friday afternoon the two teams will parade through the city on the back of Toyota Hilux’s – probably because they sponsor the AFL,” Burke points out.
“You could have 50-60,000 people lining the streets, just for the parade alone.”
As for Mullin, as you might imagine there are mixed feelings.
“He is a big loss to the club. We are not a huge club. We did well this year in the intermediate – we had a couple of injuries with a few different people. Then you throw in the likes of Oisín and his brother Jarlath who is over there with him for the last year.
“You’re losing the calibre of these types of guys so it can be difficult.
“But you also have to look at the flipside of the coin and totally respect and appreciate Oisín’s ambition. It’s something he has done and you have to celebrate it really.”
Earlier in the championship, Brian Maloney, who first played for Mayo in 1999, made an appearance at the age of 45. He has played alongside Mullin and recounts how he, “buried me with a shoulder once in training. He was just off his first year of Mayo training, it must have been five years now. He broke my rib and my collarbone in one hit.
“He came out of the Mayo camp all bulked up and had gone very strong at this point.”
The time Mullin spent in a Mayo jersey was brief, but he still gathered up two Young Player of the Year awards and an All-Star.
His progress in AFL has to be put into context, Burke believes.
“I suppose a big thing with Oisín is he is very much down to earth and he hasn’t let this go to his head. It’s been a tough road, in his first season he didn’t get much gametime at all, to now playing pretty much all them, bar one or two,” he said.
“He’s been a huge inspiration to all around here. But equally, he’s been a massive loss to our club and to our county. No doubt he would be having a huge say in the Mayo setup if he was still around.
After a Mayo win over Kildare. Bryan Keane / INPHO
Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO
“I was delighted he went to Geelong.
“Geelong always seemed to have a real steady ship. And then Mark O’Connor was already there, so I was glad to see him going to that club.
“The game, you really have to develop young with it. They play with such telepathy and they don’t take their eye off the ball.
“They can get tackled within five metres of the ball, so there is a lot of development in it.
“He went out there in November ’22 and he was actually injured and came back home.
“He went back out again and ended up playing a couple of games and he was playing professional sport within six months of taking it up. That’s absolutely phenomenal.”
This year, Geelong have used him as a ‘tagger.’ It means what you might think; mark the best and most creative players in the opposition.
“He probably got plenty of tips to do it by looking at Lee Keegan doing it to Diarmuid Connolly or a Ciaran Kilkenny,” says Burke.
“It is a very similar thing. You don’t want them to get the ball, they are the players who make the other team tick. And he’s done an absolutely phenomenal job for the last season. The Brownlow Medal award was on earlier this week and there were a few guys in the top ten that Oisín played against and he didn’t give them a ball. They might have had five touches throughout, when their typical disposals of the ball might be around 30.
“So it’s a great story, what he has done there.”
And it’s not done yet.
