World Footy News

Two stories have recently been in the New Zealand news celebrating junior talent identification and development.

Firstly, this weekend sees a National U 16 tournament to be held in Wellington. Usually such events are run as province against province and seem the natural apex tournament as a result of local area Hawks Cup events. This is not the case with this weekend’s event.

Rather, the cream of New Zealand’s under 16 talent, identified by AFLNZ talent scouts, have been organised into regional teams to contest this inaugural event. The three teams are: North Suns, Metro Eagles and Central Giants.

From this event, a New Zealand under 16 side will be chosen to compete in the South Pacific tournament involving Papua New Guinea and an Oceania team in Townsville, Queensland, Australia this April. From there, players can be selected to play for the South Pacific team to compete in the Australian Under 16 Championship.

The U16 NZ Hawks have participated in the Oceania Cup in 2009, 2010 & 2011. The tournament has provided a great opportunity for New Zealand’s talented young athletes to showcase themselves in the hope of securing an AFL career. The results have been rewarding with International Scholarships presented to Rhys Panui-Leth, Ben Miller, Shem Tatupu and Charlton Brown over the three years of involvement with this competition.

The 2011 Oceania Cup in Fiji saw the U16 NZ Hawks successful in their campaign for the first time. The strength of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand has seen a transition in the format of competition. New Zealand’s direct entry into the South Pacific Cup is successful step in the development of the sport for this age group as well as increased competition for the team.

The 2012 team has been selected through the AFL NZ Combine Programme, NZ Hawks High Performance Programme as well as participation in the AFL NZ U16 National Championships held in Wellington.

The AFL NZ Combine Programme was completed in January with 40 star athletes attending the National Combine held in Wellington on January 24th earlier this year. AFL scouts from a variety of clubs attended the event with a further two international scholarships allocated to Siope Ngata from the Hawthorn Football Club and Maia Westrupp with the Melbourne Football Club.

Secondly the AFLNZ Combine also served to raise the profile of the sport in Northland where AFL is still searching for a foothold. The 40 athletes at the combine had 10 Northlanders represent their province which is a huge step forward for the sport in the region and was noteworthy in local media.

For more, see AFLNZ U16 National Championships and Northlanders Take First Step in AFL.