I have been keeping up-to-date with the RTE show OZ Experience, which charts Ricky Nixon's camp in Castlebar last year.
It is really well put together and the young players come across very well. They are honest, genuine and for me, show all that is good about the GAA.
The show reminds of a piece I did with Thomas McCann from Antrim - just after he was at the camp. Just like the show he was honest and open with me.
PUBLISHED IN THE NORTHERN IRISH STAR ON Tuesday Sept 9th 2008.
THOMAS McCann is practising at home with an Aussie Rules ball, waiting for the call. 
Since his barnstorming beep test performance at the Flying Start AFL recruitment Camp, McCann has been on tender hooks to find out how he has done.
At the Castlebar camp, organiser – Ricky Nixon – was very impressed with his fitness and speed. The five Aussie Rule clubs involved in the search - St Kilda, Richmond and North Melbourne, Geelong and Brisbane - are all understood to be committed to inviting one player each to Australia in the post-season. Nixon will be making phone calls this week to the five players, who have been selected to travel to AFL trials. McCann knows if he gets the call, he will probably go, but also realises that he would have a lot of work to do to make a career for himself down under. “They were impressed with my fitness and speed but I know myself if I did go then I would have to bulk up,” he told The Star yesterday.“I was chatting to Ricky (Nixon) last week, but I think that was just to give me a bit of confidence.“They were impressed that I won the bleep test. “But I know I would have to put in a savage pre-season over there, if I wanted to make it.“We were shown video’s of the pre-season preparations and they look savage hard.”McCann played Freshers football with Collingwood recruit Kevin Dyas at UUJ, before Dyas made the jump to Aussie Rules. They remain friends and intend to meet up when the Armagh man is home later this month.Dyas is due home soon after receiving a horror injury in a reserve game, where he ripped his hamstring muscle off the bone. The 2008 Tommy Murphy Cup winner with Antrim takes good heart from the performances of Dyas and Martin Clarke in the AFL. Nixon has already pointed out that he is on the look-out for another ‘Marty Clarke’ and he may just have found him in McCann.When Clarke went over first, he was rated amongst the fitness at the club from his GAA training and McCann - with his 15.1 in the bleep test - is in that bracket. “I suppose that will stand to me, but with the heat over there, you never know,” he said. After the Flying start recruitment camp in the West of Ireland another Antrim lad Niall McKeever impressed in the bleep test getting 14.5. He is also highly rated by the five AFL clubs involved this time and he could also be in line to join the likes of Colm Begley and Tadhg Kennelly in making a career for themselves in Australia. The UUJ student reports that the camp was more about skill tests than fitness. “It was more skill based and the only fitness thing in the camp was the bleep test,” he said. “No matter how fit you are, you always feel the bleep test because it has so many different levels.“For me anyway the bleep test depends on who is beside me and how they keep going." Part of the skills regime was for the players to try and kick an Aussie Rules ball into a basketball net from the half-way line. McCann hit the back board with his effort- his first ever kick of the oval shape ball - but Laois starlet - Conor Meredith – scored the ball in to the ring. Meredith has already been ‘Down Under’ with the Brisbane Lions on a trial and that experience showed when he collected €100 off Nixon for the incredible kick. McCann was very impressed with the kick, which is hard to achieve if you haven’t mastered the AFL kicking technique. “It is a very accurate kick; you have to have the technique right, as you know exactly where the ball is going, because it can only go where your foot is going,” he said. “I have one (AFL ball) here at home, I am just knocking it about.”Nixon, the camp organiser, also left an impression on the Saffron player. “He told us everything straight and he doesn’t hold back at what he is thinking,” said McCann.“He had a wee chat with you and pulled you aside and tell you how things are going – and tell you how you are doing.“He said I was doing well, I think he was impressed with the bleep test. “It’s good that way because that can give you a bit of confidence. “I though the whole camp was good, everything was organised and it was something different to be doing. “The ball – at first – was hard to kick about with, but once you know how to kick it, it gets a lot more enjoyable.“There is a proper technique, if you don’t get the technique right you are pretty screwed at kicking the ball.”The Castlebar camp is set to yield three more rookies leaving the Irish shores, with a total of five getting trials. But there is no guarantee that will make it, even if the likes of Begley and Kennelly have knocked out a profitable, professional football career for themselves.
