The AFLNT State Academy Under 16s team to play Tasmania has been named ahead of the clash this Monday at Blacktown International Sportspark in Sydney.
The team fly to Sydney on Saturday, with their first game to be played on Queen’s Birthday Monday. This is the first game of the three game series with the remaining two games being played on the Gold Coast in July.
Coach Jimmy Driscoll said, “We have a pretty solid squad with good representation from throughout the Territory”.
“There’s four players from Alice Springs, three from Katherine, twelve from Darwin, three from remote areas Elcho Island, Gove and Tiwi Islands and a couple of Adelaide and Melbourne based NT boys who are down there for schooling”.
“We played a practice match last week against Pembroke School (SA) here in Darwin and had a convincing win and our aim is to continue the type of football we played in that game”.
“Raymond Prowse will be a player to watch, he won the NTFL Under 16’s Best and Fairest last season and, as always, there’s some famous Territory names in the line up including Rioli, Rusca and Jeffrey" Driscoll said.
“It was actually really hard to cut the squad down to thirty with so much talent available and it will be great to spend two days together in Sydney before playing so the team can bond and become a cohesive unit”.
“This carnival will be a great opportunity for our boys to get a taste of what the National Championships are about as they progress through the NT State Academy program”.
“Our coaching staff is also from around the NT including Greg Bain from Katherine, Mat Creeper from Alice Springs, Peter Lake from Southern Districts and Matt Campbell from Darwin/Alice Springs”.
AFLNT Under 16s
Round 1 vs Tasmania
Monday 12th May
10am at Blacktown International Sportspark
B: Dominic Forbes, Timothy Smith, Deacon Braun
HB: Will Gilmour, Kaiya Jones, Jackson Cole
C: Brandon Rusca, Ben Jungfer (C), Jack Palmer
HF: Malcolm Rosas Jr, Deeshan Gindikindi, Daniel Fuller
F: Robbie Campbell, Cody Tatlor, Francis Bruce
Foll: Barrindi Nhurrwuthun, Raymond Prowse, Marly McGregor
Int: Jacon Lampton, Joel Budarick, Joel Jeffrey, Dillen Brown, Maurice Rioli Jr