Orla O'Dwyer (born 15 July 1998) is an Irish

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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er playing for

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football league for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the league ...

competition (AFLW).

Early Life

O'Dwyer was born in Sydney, Australia'Australia Was Always On My Mind. I Was Actually Born In Sydney'
by PJ Browne for Balls.ie 19 April 2023 where her parents stayed for 4 years until they moved Orla to Ireland at the age of 1 and raised in

Killenaule Killenaule () is a small town and civil parish in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is part of the ecclesiastical parish of Killenaule and Moyglass, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and the barony of Slievardagh. It is east of ...

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

. At school she participated in soccer, basketball and cross country running. As a junior between under 8 and under 12 she played in the boys Gaelic Football competition before switching to women's football at the age of 12. Orla played open age camogie and ladies' Gaelic football, representing

Tipperary GAA The Tipperary County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Coiste Chontae Thiobraid Árann) or Tipperary GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in Cou ...

in both and captaining in the former. Intending to use her Australian citizenship as a means to return to her country of birth, O'Dwyer signed up for the Crosscoders program which identified talented athletes to try out for professional clubs in Australia and signed by the Brisbane Lions as an other sport rookie 2019.

AFLW

O'Dwyer made her AFLW debut in the Lions' round 1 game against at

Hickey Park Hickey Park is an Australian rules football ground in Stafford, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the primary home ground for Wilston Grange in the Queensland Australian Football League. It has also been featured in the AFL W ...

on 8 February 2020. She was named as the Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman for April 2021. O'Dwyer had a breakout 2022 season 6 and was named in the

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

honorary team at the end of the season, the first Irishwoman in the competition's history to achieve the feat.

References

External links

* * 1998 births Living people Irish female players of Australian rules football Brisbane Lions (AFLW) players Ladies' Gaelic footballers who switched code Tipperary camogie players Irish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Dual camogie–football players Tipperary ladies' Gaelic footballers Australian rules footballers from Sydney {{AFL-bio-1990s-stub