By Chris Chick
The Western Region Football League is about to go worldwide as five young men from the Werribee Centrals Football Club embark on the trip of a lifetime when they head to Canada to participate in the Wanderers Australia Junior Under 17s AFL Tour later this year.
Conducting its last tour to Ireland five years ago, Wanderers Australia has organized its next tour to Canada, visiting Vancouver and Toronto. The tour will see an Australian team consisting of boys from around the country aged 15-17 years compete in a series of AFL matches at an international level.
Among the 24 players selected for the trip, the WRFL is proud to have five young men attend the tour, all of whom hail from the Werribee Centrals Football Club.
Ben Taylor, Zac Cachia, Chris Rae, Mason McArdle and Sam Ellue have been named to represent the nation in the tour, the only boys to do so from Victoria.
“It’s just fantastic to have a number of players from our league selected to play in this tour, particularly given that they are the only ones from the state to be chosen and I’m sure everyone at Werribee Centrals is proud of their achievements,” WRFL chief executive Bob Tregear said.
Officially commencing after the WRFL football season, the Australian squad will gather in Sydney for the first time as a team, before jumping on a plane to Vancouver where they will spend the next two and a half weeks together.
Led by Greater Western Sydney Talent Manager Mick Cliff, the squad will play approx six games and face representative sides from across Eastern and Western Canada, playing two matches in Vancouver and two in Toronto.
Whilst in Canada, the players will be billeted out to a family for a couple of days to see what life is typically like for a Canadian family which the boys’ parents say will be an amazing experience.
“The boys are very excited to be billeted out to Canadian families that’s for sure,” Zac Cachia’s mother Nicole said.
“We are a proud club where we really focus on every child no matter what skill level they are and so to have five boys from our local club represent Australia is absolutely wonderful.”
While our game continues to grow in numbers on home soil, AFL is also rapidly growing in Canada, with a large number of junior leagues recently formed in both Ontario and British Columbia over the last 10 years.
After the representative games have been played, the squad will have some time to do a bit of sight-seeing, visiting Niagara Falls, watch a National Hockey League game, as well as watch an NBA game and visit Universal Studios and Disneyland on the way home in Los Angeles.
The tour departs on September 18 and is due to arrive back in Australia on October 4.
More information on the tour visit www.waus.com.au
Follow Chris on Twitter @chrischick24
Last Modified on 05/08/2014 10:18