A POTENTIAL ruckman who blitzed the 20m sprint is among four American athletes to be invited to travel to trial for AFL clubs in September.
College basketballer Drew Martin won an invitation to head to Australia following a brilliant few days of testing at the International Combine in Los Angeles earlier this year.
The 22-year-old, who stands 201cm and 92kg, proved his athleticism by recording a stunning time of 2.85 seconds in the 20m sprint. The all-time combine record is 2.75 seconds (by former Gold Coast player Joel Wilkinson in 2010), but Martin's time puts him in elite company.
Cullen Russo (from Fresno State University), Zac Allman (Vanguard University) and Stephen Bennett (Texas Southern University) are the other US prospects to have won an invitation to test their wares in front of AFL clubs. All are above 200cm as the AFL looks to find more ruckmen and key position players out of America.
Bennett showed his aerial prowess by winning the relative and absolute running vertical jumps tests at the combine, while Allman finished in the top five for the repeat sprints and running vertical jump.
In the past the American hopefuls have attended the national NAB AFL Draft Combine at Etihad Stadium in October, but this year they will trial in the weeks earlier so the clubs can concentrate on assessing their talent without having the 2017 draft pool in attendance.
They will be advised closely during their stay by Port Adelaide premiership coach and former GWS and Richmond assistant Mark Williams, who has taken on a role within the AFL's talent division.
Carlton and Hawthorn were the only clubs to send recruiters to oversee the combine, but the AFL is hopeful there will continue to be interest in signing the Americans as category B rookies given the development of other US recruits, including Mason Cox at Collingwood.
List managers Graham Wright (Hawthorn) and Stephen Silvagni (Carlton) attended the International Combine.
Some of the prospects may have to weigh up offers from the AFL as well as European basketball clubs, with those to potentially land in August.
"They're very keen, depending on what that European offer may be, to consider this one too from the AFL," the AFL's national and international talent manager Kevin Sheehan said.
"They've all got a fair bit to offer. They're all of ruckmen size, they're all elite athletes in so many areas and have something special about each of them.
"It's appealing to us because four years of college development has been put into each of them in professional programs as well as all of their high school upbringings in sport."
