Prized positions at Swans Academy

By James Matthey

With the Sydney Swans going from strength to strength in the national AFL competition, it is increasingly becoming the dream of youngsters to one day don the red and white jersey.

This was evident today when 150 boys in the Under-11 age group took part in the open athlete assessment trials held by the QBE Sydney Swans Academy, which were open to anyone who believed they had the right skills and attitude to play at the elite level in the future.

The Academy’s Talent Identification & Operations Manager, Chris Smith, said each boy would be assessed across various criteria by a number of coaches throughout the day, with those scores determining who would be lucky enough to secure one of the 20 available spots.

“The boys will do 10 activities, they’ll get a separate score for each of those activities and they’ll also get a score based on their attitude and how competitive they are and their overall enthusiasm,” said Smith.

“We basically collate those scores and more often than not we get it right.

“Once the eight coaches have given their scores we’ll eventually invite those boys again and have another good look at them before we make a final assessment.”

There are 400 boys in total across the Under-10, Under-11 and Under-12 age groups who are vying for a position in next year’s academy.

Smith said the initiative provided a vital opportunity for boys who may have missed out on selection in previous Academy squads to come back and display their talent again.

“Most of these boys join next year’s program, we’ve already got Under-11 and Under-12 boys in the Academy program, so this is about topping up those kids with others who may have missed out last year or who have improved over the last year or so.

“We tend to find at this age that boys do develop at different rates so a kid who didn’t make it two years ago or a year ago ends up being a stand-out today, so they do develop at vastly different rates.”

The Academy provides boys with an excellent chance to improve their skills and have fun with boys of similar age and ability, as the club hopes to unearth a generation of future Swans superstars.

“The Academy’s about providing a formal training environment for these kids where they’re with like-minded kids, kids of similar ability where they can go to training for 22 weeks, twice a week and we know that they’re getting those formal AFL practise hours into them,” said Smith.

“We still encourage them to play with their club and train with their club…we just want to know that we can guarantee that they’re getting some good training in a great environment with kids who are like-minded.”