LUKE Power says the chance to shape the country's leading young talent was the driving motivation in taking on the role as head coach of the NAB AFL Academy after five years with Greater Western Sydney.
The former Brisbane Lions captain was appointed to lead the academy late last year having played at the Giants before moving into a coaching role with the club.
He was set to relocate to Melbourne in 2017 to be a part of the Giants' recruiting team, where the three-time premiership Lion would also have had regular contact with the club's New South Wales academy players based in Victoria.
But the lure of having a hands-on role with the upcoming draft classes was too strong once former academy coach Brenton Sanderson headed to Collingwood as a senior assistant coach.
"I was leaving Sydney for family reasons, we had been up there for five years and I absolutely loved the club and what Leon's doing up there. It's a values-based club and terrific place, and I wanted to continue working for them and I was coming back to Melbourne to do that," Power told AFL.com.au during the academy's high performance tour of America this month.
"Then obviously 'Sando' accepted a job at Collingwood and the role came up. I made an enquiry and the difference between that and the recruiting job was I got to have a big influence on being able to help some of these players, and give them what I've been given throughout my career.
"Whereas in my other role I would've probably been sitting back and judging them and not being able to help them with their development. That was the important thing for me."
Power returned back to Australia on Saturday after overseeing the academy's two-week high performance training camp in America.
The squad trained at the world-class IMG Academy in Florida before spending several days in Los Angeles, where the squad of 36 draft hopefuls had two main sessions at the University of California, Los Angeles.
This year's draft crop has excited recruiters since the under-16 championships in 2015. Scouts who travelled to America (13 clubs sent representatives) left bullish about the quality of players available, and Power said he noticed similarities to the talented list he left at Greater Western Sydney.
"The thing that really, really resonates with me is their willingness to learn but also how quickly they pick up skills, new drills and things you teach. The first time it might look a bit awkward but they pick it up really quickly, and that was similar to what I found when I was coaching at GWS," he said.
"We had a lot of talented young players, but obviously talent is one thing and you need to work. They have an appetite to learn and an ability to pick up skills quickly, so there's a link with what I've found between the two groups so far."
Power was part of a new-look academy coaching line-up, with former St Kilda and North Melbourne star Nick Dal Santo, and West Coast and Fremantle assistant Peter Sumich joining the group in America, which also included Bulldogs great Brad Johnson and former Sydney star Tadhg Kennelly.
Dal Santo worked closely with the group developing kicking techniques, while Sumich's coaching experience was valuable as Power pushed for a focus on ball movements and winning contested disposals.
"The biggest things for me that I'm trying to teach are the basic fundamentals of the game: kicking, marking, handballing, and the process that goes around that," Power said.
"For me it's about giving them the tools to be able to coach themselves so if they make an error in a game or a fundamental mistake, then they can say, 'This happened because of this'. And then the next time they are confronted with that situation they can address it themselves."
