Richmond is excited to announce the signing of its first-ever Irish AFLW player, Aoibhin Cleary, who has put pen to paper on a two-year deal with the Club.

Cleary is the current county captain of Meath in Ireland’s Gaelic National Football League (NFL).

A star of the competition, Cleary made her debut as a 16-year-old in 2016 and has since added over 75 appearances.

Cleary was named Meath Ladies Players Player of the Year in 2022 and was named as an NFL All Star for both the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

The 25-year-old was part of Meath’s inaugural All Ireland winning team in 2021 and she became a dual-winner the following season when they made it back-to-back titles.

Fellow Irish AFLW players Vikki Wall (North Melbourne) and Orlagh Lally (Fremantle) were also part of the triumphant teams, with Cleary among the best players in both games.

Cleary has also played with AFLW stars Sarah Rowe (Collingwood), Aishling Moloney (Geelong) and Niamh Kelly (Adelaide) at University level when representing Dublin City University at the O’Connor Cup.

Richmond AFLW Recruiting Manager, Trent Mosbey said the Club had been scouting Cleary closely for the past three years and believed she could fill a role as a running defender with versatility to go through the midfield.

“We are delighted to be able to give Aoibhin an AFLW opportunity for the next two seasons,” Mosbey said.

“The strengths in her game will translate well to AFLW- such as her speed, endurance, agility, running patterns and high-end work rate.

“We have been impressed by Aoibhin’s capacity to transition up and back the field. Aoibhin has also demonstrated an overhead marking ability and clean hands, her kicking skills on both feet also really caught our eye.

“She has the ability to defend, apply pressure, to win one-on-ones and has illustrated competitiveness, aggression and physicality which has been impressive to see.”

Mosbey added that Cleary, who is a qualified tax advisor having completed a Master of Accounting also displayed great character.

“Aoibhin is highly regarded for her leadership, professionalism, coachability, positive energy and strong desire to achieve,” he added.

“She has also demonstrated that she is a consistent performer week to week and performed well under pressure against the best players from around the country in big final games.”

Cleary added that it was an "extremely exciting time".

"I am so grateful for the opportunity and am really looking forward to the challenge," she said.

"There are a lot of things I am looking forward to, including learning a new game, playing in a whole new team dynamic, and experiencing life as a professional athlete.

"I can't wait."