Clean bowled.
Great news for GAA fans as The Toughest Trade is set to return to our screens for a second time as a pair of Ireland’s top Gaelic figures swap places with some foreign sports stars to compare the amateur game with life as a pro.
Last year’s experiment saw Kilkenny hurler Jackie Tyrell switch codes with baseball star Brian Schneider, while former England footballer David Bentley tried his hand at Gaelic football as ex-Armagh star Aaron Kernan got a taste of life in the Premier League.
This time around it’s the turn of Tipperary star Brendan Maher, who is spending a week in Australia training with the Strikers, one of the leading sides in cricket’s Big Bash League.
“There are not too many lads who can say they got an opportunity to do something like this. To get the chance to go and have a go at it is probably once in a lifetime,” said the 27-year-old.
“Naturally, I would be very competitive and I probably will end up putting a bit of pressure on myself, but I can’t get bogged down in ‘I have to do this, I have to do that’. I just want to do the best I can.”
Based on the early evidence, it looks like Maher, who will have to adjust to facing deliveries of up to 140km/h from some of the sport’s top fast bowlers, has it all to do to get up to speed in the documentary, which has been commissioned by AIB.
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