World Footy News

New Zealand-born Hawk Shane Savage will host eight players from AFLNZ after the Club’s open training session tomorrow at the Ricoh Centre, formerly Waverley Park.

Savage will have a light kick on the oval with his compatriots, who have been living in Melbourne to improve their football skills, before they return home to play in the New Zealand Hawks team pitted against an AIS-AFL Academy squad.

Beginning their travels in Auckland, the Australians’ nine day tour will culminate in Wellington where the AIS-AFL squad will play against the New Zealand Hawks at Westpac Stadium on Saturday 28 January.

Hawthorn Football Club International Scholarship player Kurt Heatherley, who was a member of the New Zealand squad for the 2011 International Cup, will pull on his boots for the Kiwi side, for which former North Melbourne great Wayne Schwass will be an assistant coach.

Hawks defender Stephen Gilham will also make the trip across the Tasman as a line coach for the New Zealand Hawks team.

Hawthorn Football Club has partnered with AFL New Zealand since November 2009, when the Club established the HANZ-UP! (an acronym for Hawthorn Australia and New Zealand) program to underpin junior Australian Rules development throughout New Zealand.