JUNIOR football will benefit from a formal relationship between current and future academies and the Richmond Football Club.
The Australian Football League announced last week it would provide seed funding for its 10 Victorian-based sides to create initiatives to foster talented youths.
The proposal will enable AFL sides to attract youngsters from diverse backgrounds and indigenous heritage to play AFL and develop elite talent within those areas.
AFL football operations manager, Mark Evans said competition management wanted to make sure people who might not have been raised with a traditional football background feel welcome to play the game.
“We will use the expertise, resources and brand power of clubs out in regional communities to help find and attract and develop young talent, boys and girls, all cultures, all backgrounds,” he said.
“If clubs can help attract and develop some talent that would be under-represented and not normally find its way into the AFL pathway then they will have the ability to receive some incentive for that similar to the bidding system used for the northern academies.”
Richmond will cover all of northern Victoria, as well as the Wimmera region – giving the club one of the biggest areas in the state to oversee.
The Tigers will link in with AFL Central Murray’s under 13 academy that already operates in the region.
Plans will also be developed for an Indigenous and girls academy, which will grow in popularity as the AFL increases its plans to implement a women’s competition in 2017.
“It’s getting back to the old feeder days when Victorian clubs had zones to identify players,” AFL Central Murray football operations manager, Jamie Macri said.
The region’s representation in Youth Girls competitions will grow in the next 12 months, with efforts occurring to form a second side from the area in the Bendigo Junior Football League.
Woorinen made its debut in the competition last year, with Macri – who identified the growth of girls football when appointed to the AFL Central Murray-supported role in 2013 – sourcing a second club to host the new side.
• THE Western Bulldogs will host two football clinics within the Gannawarra Shire next month.
Eight players will run drills at Kerang Technical High School on Tuesday, March 1 from 10.30am, with the group to host a second clinic at Cohuna Secondary College from 1pm that day.
All primary schools will be invited to attend the two clinics.
The visit will mark a busy month for AFL Central Murray, with St Kilda players visiting Swan Hill on March 15 and a contingent from Collingwood visiting Hay on March 16.
