ABORIGINAL AFL Academy coach Eugene Warrior says his 2015 group are among some of the most exciting players he’s been involved with and is looking forward to seeing them in action on Saturday.

The Academy is en route to Alice Springs, where they will play against a Clontarf team made up of talented North Territorian footballers.

While the Academy will miss several players who are playing for SA and the NT in this year’s Under-18 National Championships, it remains stocked with most of the players who brushed aside teams fielded by Prince Alfred College and Henley High School footy programs in recent weeks.

The squad consists of players who are not only talented footballers, but dedicated students, with selection tied to academic attendance, and performance, in the classroom.

With around just 100 players being taken in each year’s national draft, the chances of a player beating the odds to make it into the full-time AFL system are small.

It’s why the Academy’s program has a particular focus on nurturing academic achievement, additional to football development.

The program’s ‘carrot and stick’ approach requires players to meet specific benchmarks in terms of attendance and educational improvement to even get to the point of on-field consideration.

Then their footy prowess comes into the equation.

Working closely with the South Australian Aboriginal Sports Training Academy (SAASTA), Warrior and his panel of mentors including Port Adelaide alumni Wade Thompson and Robbie Young, and the Power’s head of Aboriginal programs Paul Vandenbergh are able to motivate and mentor players to work hard in the classroom, and on the field.

“They’re coming along well and we’ll actually give them an evaluation on the way up to Port Augusta today,” Warrior told portadelaidefc.com.au.

“It’s an academic and footy program, so school is just as important as the football side of things.  

“We work with SAASTA to learn who’s attending school, who’s doing the right thing at school, who hasn’t handed in their school work or whatever it may be.

“We get on the front foot early and try to get rid of bad habits straight away, and make sure they’re doing the right things.

“A couple of guys will be coming up on the bus and doing school work and catch up. If they don’t do it, then they won’t play at Alice.

“We’re pretty tough on it, and had a pretty good success rate with it last year, making sure the boys do the right thing.”

The football program appears to now be taking care of itself, with Warrior lauding the ability of his 2015 playing group.

Praising the quality of this year’s group as an improvement of a strong squad that participated in the first year of the Academy in 2014, he’s got his eyes set on a strong performance against Clontarf team in Alice Springs on Saturday.

“Their footy is exceptional, the footy group is better again on last year,” Warrior said of his team.

“Many are involved with SANFL clubs, two are in the AFL-AIS Academy, two are in the SA under-18 team and eight are in the NT under-18 team.

“Only about eight aren’t in another Academy or SANFL team.

“The boys seem to be grasping the style of footy we want to play, and that’s to take the game on, be brave, and run and carry the footy.

“Their skills and pace – we’ve got a really quick group of footballers – is very exciting.”

While the Academy enjoyed a strong win over Clontarf last year, Warrior expects a much closer contest on Saturday.

“We won over Clontarf by 10-15 goals last year, but they’ve gone to Katherine and Tenant Creek to get the best squad they can,” he said.