St Kilda has renewed its connection with New Zealand, this time travelling across the Tasman on a recruiting mission as part of the AFL Academy’s level one program.
The Saints recruiters, along with 11 other AFL clubs, travelled to Wellington recently to interview, observe and analyse the future stars of our game.
Across a week long mission in New Zealand, St Kilda interviewed all 30 players on the camp, watched training sessions and observed how each boy interacted with others on the trip, as well as taking in a game against an overage Kiwi representative team.
St Kilda State Recruiting Manager Mark Smart said the camp provided invaluable access to potential recruits and an opportunity to find out more about players they’ve already been following for over 12 months.
“It’s a great opportunity to observe the group in camp with each other and how they behave in and amongst each other,” Smart told saints.com.au.
“We attended a number of training sessions, so it was terrific to see how they trained together; you always get a lot out of that.
“We interviewed them all for 10 minutes each, which was the second time that we had interviewed this group having previously done that before in Darwin last year. So it was good to follow on and explore further any tasks we gave them back then.
“We were able to watch them in the game and receive some coach’s notes beforehand on where the players were going to play and what roles they were going to play.”
After playing the first ever exhibition match in New Zealand in 1991, St Kilda took the first game for premiership points across the pond on Anzac Day in 2013, where Sydney narrowly beat the Saints in the first of three consecutive Anzac Day fixtures.
While games haven’t been played in New Zealand since 2015, St Kilda is working closely with the city of Auckland to host more games in the future.
Saints State Recruiting Manager Chris Toce said it was clear the game was cutting through on their shores with AFL New Zealand holding a combine with 30 of their most talented prospects while the recruiters were in town.
“AFL is definitely growing over there,” Toce said. “AFL New Zealand handpicked roughly 30 players to test at the Combine and they run their own Combine in Wellington a few days before the game. It’s the same testing as the AFL version, focusing on speed, agility, endurance.”
The Saints opened up their doors to the AFL New Zealand under-17 team when they travelled to Melbourne last week, providing them with an insight into how an AFL club functions. This is part of a broader partnership the club has forged with AFL New Zealand, including become a major partner of AFL New Zealand’s KiwiKick and Secondary School programs.
“We offered them an opportunity come here and train and experience an AFL environment and the facilities that come with that. They got to experience the boys’ captains run and what comes into preparing before a game which was a good experience,” Toce said.
The Saints will provide similar support later this year to the New Zealand national team during this year’s International Cup.
