World Footy News

The Canterbury AFL will host the inaugural Under 20 NZAFL National Provincial Championships in Christchurch on March 14th and 15th early next year.

Such tournaments have been held previously at various age levels, but not to the magnitude of the one being planned. The event will be open to the Canterbury League, Waikato League, Auckland League, Wellington League and, if the tournament criteria can be met, a special invitation will go out to the Otago Region.

Otago's capital Dunedin is a University town with a transient population who tend to head home to their regional towns at the end of the University’s second semester. This is making it hard to create sustainable growth in the area, as many of the key drivers have learnt the game in other centres such as Wellington and Christchurch and as such do not remain to build things up during the off season. For more on the fledgling Otago footy scene, the article Australian football rioters reviewed development so far, as well as previewing the upcoming match against the Canterbury AFL to be held in Christchurch.

Though NZ has worked hard with its junior development over the last decade NZAFL CEO Rob Vanstam is ramping up the challenge. With the showing of the PNG youngsters in the International Cup and the International Rookie Scholarship positions available an event such as this is timely.

All players competing in the tournament must be born in 1989 or younger. It is expected that a majority of players will be selected from the senior ranks of teams throughout the country but it is also an opportunity to utilise talented sportsmen from school programmes, and other football codes, as an entry into the game of Australian Football. It is expected that scouts from several AFL clubs will attend and so the incentive and opportunity of discovery has never been greater.

One of the stand outs at the camp will be current NZ Falcon 16 year old Liam Ackland. Mt Roskill midfielder Ackland will travel to Canberra and the Australian Institute of Sport at the end on November to take place in a week long camp. The players will undergo testing that Ackland is familiar with due to his involvement with the New Zealand Falcons. This could involve three kilometre time trials, beep tests, vertical leap and sprint times.

Games will most likely be of an hour duration with up to 4 games played by each team over the weekend. The format could vary depending on teams available but the emphasis will be on capturing as many available Under 20 players as possible to showcase the games potential.

Interestingly a few experimental laws will be used during the tournament for the first time. Teams will field 16 players on the field to ensure open and running play is invited. The squads will have a maximum of 22 players. As the tournament continues the players available on the bench will decrease. Game 1: 6 players on the bench. Game 2 onwards: 4 players on the bench. It would seem such rules are to support provinces who lack great depth.

It is expected that initial squads and management teams will be selected over the next few weeks with final squads announced by February 21st 2009.

Supporting talented junior sportsmen is also a key development role of the NZAFL Head Office and as such the office is endorsing applications for Prime Minister’s Scholarships. These are for a maximum of $10,000 per annum, and are available for academic fees. These scholarships are open to all players that have represented New Zealand in the past 12 months.