World Footy News

The Academy New Zealand Hawks recently completed a tour to Sydney where they played games against a NSW Independent Schools All Star Team and the Sydney Swans Academy. The Sydney Swans Academy were coached by former AFL great Michael O’Loughlin.

 

The Academy is a new pathway for aspiring AFL footballers in New Zealand. With the demise of the AIS funded team tours to New Zealand, and elsewhere, NZ have taken on the challenge themselves of organizing an alternate pathway for their more talented youth.

 

The touring team was selected after 65 boys from around the country were pre-selected into 3 National League teams and came together to play 4 games over a weekend. Players to stand out were Carlos Donnell-Brown (Auckland), Masiu Vanikolo (Rotorua), Utu ah Kuoi (Wellington) and the player of the tournament Connor McGeough (Wellington). McGeough, ah Kuoi and Donnell-Brown all were part of the travelling team. Other key players included Barclay Miller (Canterbury) who is now an International Scholarship holder for the St Kilda Saints and William Kempt (Wellington) whose father, Gregor, played previously for NZ at the Arafura Tournament in Darwin during the late ‘90’s.

 

 

Tournament Director Sam McKenzie was blown away by the support of the parents who came out to watch the tournament. “This has been by far the most amount of support we have had at an AFL New Zealand local event”.

 

 

Academy New Zealand Hawks Head Coach Shannon Wall was excited about the fact that the squad has been exposed to a lot of AFL Football through the AFL New Zealand Academy over the past 2 months and was well prepared as a result of this in implementing a solid structure that the team could focus on.

 

 

The travelling team represented 15 different secondary schools across NZ with Wellington College (5 players), St Pat’s Silverstream, Wellington (3 players) and Green Bay High School, Waitakere, Auckland (3 players) the most heavily represented.

 

 

The players came from across NZ and the growing impact of AFL in Northland, north of Auckland, is evident through the number of representatives from there. Interestingly there is little representation from Canterbury, Otago or Waikato but sometimes player development in areas is cyclical dependent on who is there in the regions to drive it.

 

 

Though the results were probably not unexpected with the Independent All-Stars defeating the Academy 49 to 17 and the Swans Academy blitzing the NZ Hawks team 27.15:177 to 1.1:7 success is not always measured by the scoreboard. For the NZ boys to play at the prestigious St Ignatius College, Riverview, Lane Cove followed by their second game at AFL venue Blacktown International Sportspark would have been fantastic opportunities that might help them choose AFL as a preferred sport…crucial in development markets for progressing the code.

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan Absalom Wellington College, Wellington

Naitoa Ah Kuoi Wellington College, Wellington

Utusa’itoa Ah Kuoi, Wellington College, Wellington

Joseph Alesich-Tamariki, Rosmini College, Auckland

Ben Armstrong, Bay of Islands, Northland

Alex Awatere, Aotea College, Wellington

Lewis Barrow-Young, Northcote College, Auckland

Joel Brown, St Paul’s College, Auckland

Carlos Donnell-Brown, Greenbay High School, Auckland

Misilifi Faimalo Porirua College, Wellington

Sam Green, Wellington College, Wellington

Nathan Halloran-Mclean, Greenbay High School, Auckland

Shaun Hanning, St Patrick’s College Silverstream, Wellington

William Kempt, St Patrick’s College Silverstream, Wellington

Connor McGeough, St Patrick’s College, Silverstream, Wellington

Zeon McNabb, Rosehill College, Counties

Barclay Miller, Middleton Grange College, Canterbury

Jack Morris, Greenbay High School, Auckland

Isaac Piper, St Peter’s College, Auckland

Jackson Rolleston, Te Wananga, Hamilton, Waikato

Jacob Tucker, Northcote College, Auckland

Sebastian Valadares Roman, Sacred Heart College, Auckland

Joseph Wadman, Kerikeri High School. Northland

James Watkins, Wellington College, Wellington