It’s a role which allows me to be involved in our AFL training and work with our development coaches Stuart Cochrane and Aaron Greaves to improve the craft and skills of our Power players and through that gain an understanding of the boys who might feature for the Magpies this year, our structures, our game plans - basically the way Port Adelaide plays footy!
I’ve been learning a lot from our AFL coaches and our senior Magpies coach Garry Hocking. It’s a real privilege to work under one of the greats of our game and I think our club is incredibly lucky to have a bloke of his calibre leading our Magpies League team this year.
As a former Magpies and Power player, I’ve been really happy with the way our club has worked to bring all our football operations under the one roof and making sure every Port Adelaide player plays to the same game plan.
That’s what you’ll see this year, whether you’re watching the Power play AFL footy under Ken Hinkley or the Academy team with me - Port Adelaide football will look and feel the same.
I’m going to report on every game the Academy team plays this year - sharing which players to keep an eye on, which of our boys are doing well and where we need to improve as a team.
Our boys have been fantastic in their approach to pre-season so far, particularly the 10 League 'pool' players who’ve signed contracts.
They’ll be able to play both League footy and in the Academy side this year.
Jake Johansen is a 17-year-old kid who got special permission from the AFL and SANFL to play in our Academy team this year. He played 15 League games under Ken McGregor last year and he’s been playing and training really well, hoping to get picked up in the draft next year.
Obviously Henry Slattery has been recruited as our mature-age player and he’s brought great leadership for our young group. Having played AFL at Essendon he knows how the best teams work and to have a guy with a great personality like him around will help our group mature quickly.
Then we’ve got Steve Summerton who probably had a few questions about the program at first, but once he saw the work we’d put into the new Academy structure, he wanted to stay with us. It’s good to have an SANFL veteran like him hang around and provide leadership and set expectations for the young guys. He also sets the standard on the track, which is really important.
Louis Sharrad has been doing well on the track after recovering from injury, Aseri Raikiwasa continues to show progress - he wants to play AFL next year and our program is all about developing players to give them that opportunity - and we’ve also recruited Anthony Biemans from South Barwon in Geelong, who has been another superb leader on the track.
Danny Butcher signed on with us following his time on the Power list, and his style suits our game plan. He also understands the way we want to play and can talk about the expectations that come with play in an AFL-style program.
Robbie Young has also been really good. His first half of pre-season training has been quite outstanding as have our other contracted players Ben Sawford and Ben Haren who both love this club. ‘Sawf’ has been really consistent for us and Haren has had one of the better pre-seasons from the group.
All in all, it’s been really exciting coaching that group, but our whole Academy list - which is upwards of 30 players still - has been just as pleasing.
We have a dozen or so blokes in the Academy squad who can play Under-18s still and will really make our Academy players earn their spots.
There were a few players who were uncertain about the future here up until we secured our Academy and junior programs for 2014, and all have really embraced the special opportunity we can offer them at Port Adelaide.
You can see the improvement in all of our younger players and for this year it’s really important to make the program the best we can.
We’re really looking forward to the season ahead and, hopefully, playing finals footy with our Academy team in the SANFL Reserves, our Under-18 and Under-16 teams.
I want to finish this update by highlighting the point that the majority of our Academy and underage players come from within our zones.
We’re putting a lot of time and energy into our zones and maintaining our good relationships in the Port Adelaide district and also on the Eyre Peninsula and west coast. Even when the zones are taken away from us for 2015, we want to keep working hard for our traditional areas to develop footballers in the Port Adelaide mould.
Make sure you get out to our games this year and support these boys and our community!
Our first game is against North Adelaide on March 29 and we play in every game before the League Magpies (except when they play the Crows SANFL team) this year.
I hated losing as a player for the Power and Magpies and I’m going to hate losing as a coach. We want to develop our best players and put no limits on what the boys are capable of achieving, but I also know you expect 100 per cent from our players whatever level they’re playing at.
It’s the way I’m going to coach our Academy and I’d love to see all our supporters supporting the team this year.
Until next time!
Surj
Become a member of the Magpies with a full membership or We Are Port Adelaide upgrade to see every Maggies League and Academy game in 2014! Visit weareportadelaide.com.au or call 1300 GO PAFC to get your package today.
