Janet Baird (Palmerston) and Danielle Ponter (St Mary’s) have been selected in the second intake of 44 players who will receive a NAB AFL Women’s Academy scholarship and will come together for accelerated Australian Football and personal development camps to be held within Australia over a 12-month period.
The squads are overseen by AFL Women’s Female Talent Operations Manager Aasta O’Connor and mentors Renee Forth and Ahmed Saad with 2017 AFLW best and fairest and Adelaide Crows premiership player Erin Phillips joining the AFLW Academy staff as a high performance coach.
The intake includes two squads; 15 Level One – players who are 16 years of age and 29 Level Two – which includes the best 17-year-olds across the country who are eligible for the 2018 NAB AFL Women’s Draft.
AFL Women’s Female Talent Operations Manager Aasta O’Connor said the squads were selected by AFL and state talent managers following the 2017 AFL Women’s Under-18 Championships.
“The success of the inaugural Academy can be seen with 11 players being added to AFLW lists at the recent NAB AFL Women’s Draft,” she said.
“In the next 12 months we will be working to prepare the best young female talent for AFLW football.”
AFL Northern Territory High Performance Manager Wally Gallio said “Both players have shown the AFL traits necessary to be selected in the NAB Level 2 Academy.”
“They will be able to use the Academy to polish up and prepare themselves for their draft year and also another Nationals campaign with the NT and hopefully selected again for the Allies.”
The Academy will hold its first camp at the Michael Long Learning and Leadership Centre in Darwin in December.