Media Release from AFL (NSW/ACT)
12 North Coast Players selected in Northern Heat
Twelve North Coast players have been selected to represent the Northern Heat in the Under 13 & Under 14 State Zone Trials at Albury in October. The players continue as strong growth in representative players from local junior AFL teams in 2009.
38 players from the North Coast joined with over 150 juniors from the Hunter, Central Coast & Central West to trial for the Under 13 and Under 14 teams at Lake Macquarie on Sunday. Four North Coast players were selected in the Under 13’s and eight in the Under 14’s.
Northern Heat will now attend the State Zone Trials playing the six other regions at Albury from October 11-14 in an attempt to gain selection in the AFL NSW/ACT State Academy. Previous Academy players Cruz Hastings (Sawtell/Toormina) and Damien Attwood (Coffs Swans) have both been selected and will be attempting to retain their place in the Academy.
Local umpire, Mitchell Turner will also represent the North Coast in the carnival for the second successive year.
The growth of the game in the Macleay Valley was evident with three players from the Macleay Valley Under 14 Premiership team gaining selection. Ronald Sines, Darren Holten and Joel Hoskins join an increasing number of indigenous players to be excelling at local AFL level.
All players underwent a six week training period leading into the trials and were well prepared by Mick Pearce (Coffs Harbour Satellite Coach) and Scott Abercrombie (Port Macquarie Satellite Coach). Mick Pearce and Tim Joseph, (North Coffs Under 14 Premiership coach) coached teams on the day whilst Scott Abercrombie (Under 13) and Mark Heaney (under 14) were on the Northern Heat selection panel.
In preparation for the State Zone Trials, players will attend a team training session at Newcastle this weekend before going a series of fitness tests the weekend before the trials.
Players selected are:
Northern Heat Under 13
McKinlay Pearce (Coffs Swans)
Kane Latham (North Coffs)
Luke Matheson (Coffs Swans)
Jordan Perks (Sawtell / Toormina)
Northern Heat Under 14
Damien Attwood (Coffs Swans)
Cruz Hastings (Sawtell / Toormina)
Jake Saunders (Sawtell / Toormina)
Cody Papley (North Coffs)
Willow Lewis (Byron Bay)
Darren Holten (Macleay Valley)
Ronald Sines (Macleay Valley)
Joel Hoskins (Macleay Valley)
Last Modified on 23/09/2009 18:16