World Footy News

The Great Britain Bulldogs last weekend held their training camp at the elite training facilities of Surrey Sports Park, in preparation for the upcoming announcement of their 2014 International Cup squad.

With four of the Bulldogs also selected for the European Legion to play against the AFL-AIS Academy in the Easter challenge series, the camp was a chance to see some of the athletic prowess the Bulldogs will bring to the tournament Down Under.

This report courtesy of GB Bulldogs Performance and Team Coordinator Claire Shapland.

You may have seen Tim Lovejoy and Matt Dawson trying out Australian Rules Football on BT Sport last week, but this weekend saw the GB Bulldogs AFL team visit the Surrey Sports Park for a combine testing and fitness weekend. Run by the team at the High Performance Institute, players aspiring to be in the International Cup 2014 squad were put through their paces in numerous fitness tests as used in the AFL draft including functional movement assessments, 20m sprints, the slalom agility run and the Yoyo intermittent recovery test.

For some it was a re-test weekend having been given individual programmes based on their last test results on their last visit to SSP in December. Big improvements were seen by all, but the stand out performer of the weekend was 19 year old Birmingham University student Sam Willatt who, with a 20m sprint time of 2.80 seconds, would have ranked 2nd in the actual AFL draft 2013. Sam is one of four Bulldogs selected in the European Legion squad to play the AFL AIS Academy team in Harrow on 12th April who will benefit from a week of coaching from ex-AFL professionals.

Sean Walton, GB & European Legion captain said: “Surrey Sports Park was the perfect location for the GB Bulldogs training camp. Elite level facilities and professional staff meant everything ran smoothly and the lads could get the most out of the weekend. Our time in Surrey has been invaluable in the Bulldogs preparation for the International Cup in Melbourne this Summer’.

As a non-funded UK sport, the Bulldogs are currently seeking a sponsor for their International Cup campaign - for more information please contact president@aflgb.com, or visit aflengland.co.uk. Follow the Bulldogs progress on twitter @GBBulldogsAFL and show your support by using #BackTheBulldogs.

Mike Kelly in 20m sprint

Bulldogs Squad at SSP

Speedster Sam Willatt

Anish Patel puts in a Monster Leap