Rachel Kearns has Mayo mission before going Down Under

She might be set to resume her AFL career in the autumn, but that won’t prevent Rachel Kearns from donning the green and red of Mayo in this year’s TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship.

A multi-talented sports star, Kearns signed terms with Aussie Rules outfit Geelong in July 2021 - a few months after showcasing her soccer skills at Galway United in the Women’s National League.

At the end of the same year, the MacHale Rovers ace also picked up her second TG4 All Star following a haul of 2-17 [0-08f] across five championship appearances.

Despite being back in the fold for the opening round of this year’s Lidl National Football League Division 1, there was some doubt over how long Kearns was going to be available to Mayo in 2023.

While Geelong were keen for her to be part of their pre-season preparations ahead of the league kicking off in September, an arrangement has been reached for Kearns to remain with Mayo for as long as they remain in the Brendan Martin Cup.

"I'm really blessed in Geelong. I’m really grateful to them for letting me do this."

"When I left abroad, we didn’t have a complete clarification of what I was going to do," Kearns explained.

"They [Geelong] kind of said, 'play the league and we’ll see how you get on’. They were saying, ‘we would have liked to have you over a bit earlier’ because I kind of missed all of last season with shoulder reconstruction.

"They said, ‘we would like you to come over for the full pre-season, even though we know you really want to play Gaelic. Just go home and see how you feel’.

"Then basically the coach and the captain came over for a visit, because they were going looking at other players. We were talking and they said how was I getting on and I said I was really enjoying it.