Kelm set for AFL trials with Fremantle

FERMANAGH footballer Ultan Kelm is set to head Down Under tomorrow to participate in trials with AFL club Fremantle Dockers.

Kelm came close to joining the Western Australia club in 2021 as a Catergory B rookie but a recurring hip injury ended the Belleek speedster’s dream only two months after news broke that he had been snapped up.

The Erne Gaels clubman has made it clear in subsequent interviews that he hadn’t given up on the possibility of an AFL career, revealing to the Irish Times last December that, “It’s not a closed door from my end. It’s an opportunity that I would love to give a rattle to if the opportunity did arise.

“Once you hit 19 I think that’s nearly old to be going out there. But from my end, I’d like to think I’ve got experience. I’ve had an AFL ball in my hand for the last couple of years so I am not going out completely raw to it.”

Now it has emerged that he is set for a second shot at the AFL with the ‘Dockers’, a club with a rich history, hosting the state’s first organised game of Australian rules all the way back in 1881.