Ciarán Byrne (born 6 December 1994) is a

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 ...

er who plays for the St Mochta's club at senior level for the Louth county team. He previously played professional

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 the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Princes Park (stadium), Princes Park in Carlton North, Victoria, Carlton North, an inner suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The c ...

. His nickname ("Casey") was the result of his younger sister's inability to pronounce ''Ciarán'', and was used during his time at Carlton.

Early career

Byrne was a talented prospect in Gaelic football. He was selected for the Louth county team panel at the age of 18, and scored five points in a 2013 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship qualifier match against

Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 10,302, making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. It is home to Kildare Cathedral, historically the site of an important abbey said to have been founded by Saint ...

at Newbridge. Byrne played for Ireland in both Tests of 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 ...

AFL career

In August 2013, Byrne signed a two-year Category B rookie contract AFL club Carlton. Byrne made his senior AFL debut in Round 3, 2015 against Essendon at the MCG; however, after a

hamstring A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Etymology The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...

injury in that game, he missed the remainder of the season, playing only a couple of games for Carlton's , the Northern Blues. He became a regular in the team's backline in the early part of 2016, playing 11 of Carlton's first 14 games before rupturing his right

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

, an injury which caused him to miss the rest of the

2016 AFL season The 2016 AFL season was the 120th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

. In October 2018, Byrne informed Carlton Football Club of his decision to retire from AFL football and to return to Ireland. Byrne stated that he had fallen "out of love" with the Australian code and wanted to return to Gaelic football.

Return to Gaelic football

After returning to Ireland, Byrne resumed his Gaelic football career with the St Mochta's club. Shortly after resuming the game he dislocated his ankle in the Louth Intermediate Football Championship final (which St Mochta's won after appearing there for the first time since 1981). This injury caused Byrne to miss another season, and was initially thought to be career-threatening. He recovered with the aid of reformer

pilates Pilates (; ) is a type of mind-body exercise developed in the early 20th century by German physical trainer Joseph Pilates, after whom it was named. Pilates called his method "Contrology". Pilates uses a combination of around 50 repetitive e ...

(which he had first used while recovering from injury in the AFL) and subsequently began a pilates business in his home village of

Louth, County Louth Louth () is a village at the heart of County Louth, Ireland. It is approximately 11 km south-west of Dundalk, 11 km to the neighbouring town of Ardee and 15 km south-east of Carrickmacross town in County Monaghan. The village gave ...

. Byrne was selected to play for Louth again and joined the county's senior football panel in 2020

Honours

* National Football League Division 3 (1):

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Louth defeat Limerick to claim Division 3 honours in Allianz Football League
/ref> * National Football League Division 4 (1):

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

* Louth Intermediate Football Championship (1): 2018 * Leinster Colleges Senior Football Championship (1): 2011

References

External links