VIC Country tackles this year’s AFL Under 18 Championships with a different mindset to previous campaigns.
AFL Victoria High Performance Manager Leon Harris said experiences from last year, especially the travel factor, coupled with this year’s changed format of the TAC Cup finals had necessitated change.
Harris said player welfare was paramount in the transparent change of focus that would see more Under 17 players involved, particularly in the match against NSW/ACT in Sydney.
He said it was a selection focus borne from the fallout of last year’s Championships where the constant travel over successive weekends took its toll on many players and brought about a below expectation performance.
“On five weekends in a row these guys were travelling to Melbourne – two and half to three hours in some cases – playing a game and then travelling home,” Harris said.
“It absolutely killed them and our second trip interstate was woeful. So, what we are trying to do is in Round 2 when we travel to Sydney, we are going to play a lot of 17-year-olds.
“What we will be looking at this year is different from normal in that there will be more Under 17s in that group.
“Last year when we played Under 18 players at the end (of the Championships) we exposed them more than helped them.”
Harris said such an opportunity would also pave the way for many players to showcase their talent in the knowledge that they could be drafted by Greater Western Sydney.
Vic County Under 16 won last year’s AFL Under 16 National Championships, which Harris believes will hold those players in good stead heading into this year’s carnival.
“I want to expose those boys and give them the chance of being drafted, but I also believe this group can win,” Harris said.
Harris said Vic Country would carry a minimum of 15 Under 17 players in its squad as well as 30 Under 18 players.
While acknowledging the Under 17 players will be predominantly selected for the NSW/ACT match, Harris said the “best possible” team will be selected for the Championship opener against Vic Metro on Sunday, May 30.
Harris said selectors would be mindful of the travel involved in choosing which top age players for the trip to Sydney.
“Dandenong and Geelong metropolitan kids will form a big part of that as they simply don’t have as far to travel,” he said.
Harris also noted with the finals expanded to 12 teams it presented exposure opportunities that previously did not exist from all players and this gave all players, regardless of their age, the chance to impress.
“After last year playing 18-year-olds knowing that could not be drafted, the decision was made to play more 17-year-olds, may be boys who could get AIS selected,” Harris said.
Plans for the 2010 AFL Under 18 National Championships were initiated late last year, but unlike last year, the initial squad did not come together until January.
Harris said the squad comprised 17 Under 18 players, who had proved themselves in the TAC Cup the previous year and 27 Under 17 players, which was the squad that won the Under 16 Championships.
Topping up that Under 16 squad was one player who had improved considerably and another who had been injured the previous year.
“We brought all those boys in and outlined what was going to happen this year and kept in communication with them over the summer months ,” Harris said.
“Hydey (coach Robert Hyde) also communicates with the clubs during the lead up so we get as much feed back as we can,”
As a group, the squad assembled in early April with additional 15 inclusions of players who had stepped up during pre-season and early TAC Cup rounds.
Two Under 18 and an Under 17 Trial Matches followed the next weekend with the squad knocked down to about 45 players in the first week of May and later that will be pruned to the 40 players that will be submitted to the AFL.
Last Modified on 31/05/2010 13:13