Mark Keane (footballer)

Mark Keane (born 17 March 2000) is an Irish professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Adelaide Football Club after previously playing for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Mark Keane
Keane with Adelaide in May 2025
Personal information
Date of birth	(2000-03-17) 17 March 2000 (age 25)
Original team(s)	Cork GAA, Ballygiblin GAA, Mitchelstown GAA
Draft	2019 rookie draft category B selection
Height	194 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	92 kg (203 lb)
Position(s)	Defender
Club information
Current club	Adelaide
Number	48
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2019–2021	Collingwood	5 (0)
2023–	Adelaide	39 (0)
Total		44 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of round 13, 2025.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Early life and junior sports

Keane grew up in Mitchelstown in County Cork, Ireland.^[1] He played hurling and Gaelic football in Cork and represented Cork at U20 level in football. Keane was scouted by an Australian Football League recruiter while playing for North Cork in 2017 and tested at the 2017 AFL European Combine in Dublin where he was offered a contract with the Collingwood Football Club.^[2]

AFL career

Collingwood

Keane with Collingwood's VFL side in July 2021

Keane joined Collingwood as a Category B rookie in 2018 after a two-week trial at the club.^[3] He made his debut in the club's round 9 match in the 2020 AFL season against Fremantle, where the Magpies lost by 12 points.^[4] In January 2022, Keane left Collingwood and the AFL to play Gaelic Football with Mitchelstown GAA in Ireland.^[5]

Adelaide Crows

Ultimately, Keane returned to Australia and signed with Adelaide in the 2023 pre-season supplemental signing period (SPP).^[6] He made his debut with the Adelaide Crows in Round 20 in 2023 with a Showdown win against Port Adelaide.^[7] Keane had a break-out year in 2024, headlined by a dominant defensive performance where he had 26 disposals and 11 marks in the Crows' loss to Fremantle.^[8] Keane missed only two games for the season, and despite rumours that he would request a trade to return to Collingwood, Keane re-committed to Adelaide beyond his contracted year of 2025,^[9] extending until 2028.^[10]

GAA career

Keane returned to Ireland in 2020 and was brought on as a substitute for Cork against Kerry in the 2020 Munster Senior Football Championship. He scored the late goal that knocked Kerry out of the competition, in what was described as "one of the biggest upsets in recent championship history... a strike so late it had eerie echoes of Tadhg Murphy's 1983 goal at the same end of the ground that similarly put Kerry out of the championship".^[11][12]

AFL statistics

Statistics are correct to the end of 2024^[13]

Legend

G	Goals	K	Kicks	D	Disposals	T	Tackles
B	Behinds	H	Handballs	M	Marks

Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)
				G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
2019	Collingwood	47	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2020[a]	Collingwood	47	1	0	0	5	1	7	1	2	0.0	0.0	5.0	1.0	7.0	1.0	2.0
2021	Collingwood	11	4	0	1	31	25	56	23	1	0.0	0.3	7.8	6.3	14.0	5.8	0.3
2022	Collingwood	47	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2023	Adelaide	48	5	0	0	46	21	67	29	3	0.0	0.0	9.2	4.2	13.4	5.8	0.6
2024	Adelaide	48	21	0	1	270	83	353	113	22	0.0	0.1	12.9	4.0	16.8	5.4	1.1
Career			31	0	2	352	131	483	166	28	0.0	0.1	11.4	4.2	15.6	5.4	0.9

Notes

1. The 2020 season was played with 17 home-and-away matches per team (down from 22) and 16-minute quarters with time on (down from 20-minute quarters with time on) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.