NSW/ACT talent shines

By Alison Zell

With the Under-16s taking out the Division 2 title and the Under-18 NSW/ACT Rams very close at the NAB AFL Under-18 National Championships, Sydney Swans Premiership player Tadhg Kennelly said talent in NSW and the ACT is flourishing.

“It’s a pretty good time to be a player in NSW and the ACT,” Kennelly said.

“Obviously there’s 10 kids from NSW/ACT who have played AFL this year but it’s been a while since we’ve had a kid drafted so fingers crossed we’ll get a kid or two drafted and not on the rookie list.

“You’ll see a lot more NSW kids drafted to other clubs bar the Swans and GIANTS because the talent’s got deeper and deeper.”

The NSW/ACT Rams were undefeated throughout the NAB AFL Under-16 National Championships to take out the 2013 Division 2 title in Blacktown last Saturday.

The Rams secured their title win with a strong victory against Tasmania on Saturday at Blacktown International Sportspark in Round 3 of the carnival which was held in Sydney last week.

Kennelly, also an AFL Talent Coordinator, coached the side to victory.

“It was brilliant, the whole week was fantastic,” Kennelly said.

“I tried to instil in them from day one that team success equals individual success because when you’ve got kids like this, they’re thinking about recruiters looking at them and they start playing as an individual.

“You’ve got to be really, really hard on them early and set a standard that there’s stuff that’s not acceptable and there’s some stuff that is acceptable.

“It just sets up the discipline of the team that if someone makes a mistake everyone else is in and it really starts that team environment.

“I reward players for doing team stuff rather than the blokes that are kicking the goals.”

The Rams last claimed the Division 2 title in 2002 and Kennelly said it was the evenness of the talent in their team that led to the title.

“We had a really good midfield bunch, the bunch themselves of 25 players were very even and as most good football teams have, we had two key defenders, two key forwards and a bunch of midfielders that we could rotate through the middle which helped.”

With the side made up of 15 members from the Slater & Gordon GIANTS Academy and 10 boys from the QBE Sydney Swans Academy, the most talented footballers in NSW and the ACT have a clear pathway to making it to the AFL.

“We only really get the kids for six weeks all up but the Academies have them all year round so their skill development and the fundamentals of the game they’ve been able to give them so we can just talk about structure and team orientation stuff and we don’t have to spend time teaching them how to kick properly or bad habits.

“They’re already up to standard and an elite standard because of all the work the Academies have done.” 

The win capped off a stellar week for the Under-16s side with their captain, Callum Mills, named the Best Player of Division 2 and the NSW/ACT Rams Most Valuable Player.

Mills was also awarded with the Carbine Club Sports Scholarship on Friday at the Carbine Club AFL luncheon.

“Callum was just the one that was the real driving force,” Kennelly said.

“He was really my voice when I wasn’t there.

“You can’t be listening to the same coach all the time, you can’t keep an eye on them all the time – he was that one.

“He’s just a fantastic leader, a kid well beyond his years; he’s a kid that acts like he’s 20 or 21 at an AFL club already.

“He just really wants it, has got great desire and I’m sure he’ll make it.”