World Footy News

The New Zealand Under 16 team are set to depart for Fiji to take on five other Oceania nations in the inaugural Oceania Cup.

The team will be coached by former Collingwood AFL player Fatui Ataata with current New Zealand Senior Hawks player, Andrew Crighton as his assistant.

After the great success of the inaugural Hawks Cup Tournaments held throughout NZ a team has been assembled with representatives from 14 different schools and the four major playing regions of Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Waikato are all represented. This is a fantastic result and shows the work that AFL New Zealand are prepared to put in regionally to promote the game.

Sami Tuitupou from Papatoetoe College has been named as captain of the team, with his deputies, recent Hawthorn signing Kurt Heatherley from St Pauls College Hamilton and Brody Cleave from St Peters College in Auckland.

The tournament is focused on the under sixteen age group with dispensations for up to 6 players to be over that age. The New Zealand team has focused on the younger end of the scale to ensure that new athletes are given every opportunity to adapt to their newest sporting endeavour.

The team has an average height of 182 centimetres which is taller than the last senior team to represent New Zealand at the International Cup and with an average age of only 15, there is scope for the participants to have another visit to the Oceania Cup next year and the year following.

With AFL New Zealand’s intentions to commence a national academy in 2010, the opportunities to monitor the progress of young athletes will provide talent spotters the opportunity to monitor and provide input.

The World team's participation in the Australian National Under 16 Championships next year is an immediate goal for all participants of the Oceania Cup and the likelihood of further International Scholarships is a huge incentive to participating nations to have their High Performance pathways in order.

The team is as follows:

Mose Afu, Brandon Sucu, Brody Cleave, Zac Maio, Rhys Panui-Leth, Shane Owen King, Dom Purdie Timotea, Benjamin Fisher, Lokeni Gavet, Mitch Harding, Kurt Heatherley, Shem Kalvin Tatupu, Samiuela Tuitupou, Michael Ki, David Fusitu'a, Luke Campbell, Vandyn Hartman, Byron Groenewald, Corinthian Leli, Jotham Wrampling, Shaun Kingi, Adam Smith

Given that the NZ Hawks squad is such a young one it will be very interesting to see how they go at this level and WFN wish them all the best for the tournament.

For more see: http://www.nzafl.co.nz/News/NewZealan...fault.aspx