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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who plays for the in the

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

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 in

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

. 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) () or Tipperary GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Tipperary and the Tipperary county teams. County Tippe ...

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 Wom ...

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-perfo ...

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 21st-century Irish sportswomen {{AFL-bio-1990s-stub