World Footy News

Illinois basketballer Sam McLaurin has some impressive highlights (seen in the video reel below) both at his former college team Coastal Carolina and his current Illinois Fighting Illini team.  Standing at 203cms the 23 year old is a potential AFL ruckman and will be put through his paces in LA from April 14-16 in the second official US Combine.

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Last year following the US Combine the AFL brought three athletes to Melbourne for the Australian national AFL Combine in Melbourne and subsequently Eric Wallace was listed by the North Melbourne Football Club.    This year the opportunity will again be there for the best two or three athletes tested to be part of the Australian combine in October.

Another of the athletes to be tested will be David Grzesiak, a 190cm 24 year old decathlete at the University of Wisconsin.  Grzesiak is currently ranked 129 in the world for Decathlon by the All-Athletics.com website.  Grzesiak’s  Aussie rules workout video can also be seen below.

Representing the AFL in LA will be International Talent Manager Kevin Sheehan, AFL Academy Development Manager Michael Ablett and former Sydney Swans player and current International Talent Coordinator Tadhg Kennelly.  Kennelly is fresh from running the AFL Europe squad for the AIS-AFL team’s tour of Europe over the past two weeks.  The USAFL will be sending Revolution National Team Coach Matt Bishop along with USA Revolution Development Squad Coach Dan Sarbacker to oversee the combine.

At this stage 17 athletes are expected to test at the combine and a number of AFL clubs will have recruiting staff at the combine.