First there was the schoolyard accident in April to Melbourne draftee Sam Blease that left him with a broken leg and ended his season before it really even started.
Now a few months on, the AFL chose the exact same playing fields to trial a new skills test that will be used for the first time at this year’s NAB AFL Draft Camp.
The test, designed by outgoing AIS-AFL Academy assistant coach Nathan Buckley, is the most scientific testing of a player’s kicking ability ever seen at a draft camp.
Ten budding draftees from the eastern suburbs gathered at the school with Buckley and AFL Talent and International Manager Kevin Sheehan to try out the new drill which involves players having a couple of seconds to turn around and hit one of six possible targets.
Unlike Blease four months ago, all players emerged unscathed from the kick to kick.
Matthew Scott is a student at Yarra Valley as well as a budding AFL player with TAC Cup team Eastern Ranges.
He said he found it hard to believe it has taken so long for kicking to be closely evaluated at the draft camp.
“Kicking is one of the most important things in football these days. I was a bit surprised it hasn’t been put in until now. It’s definitely a good step forward to add it to the testing at draft camp,” Scott said.
Kicking in front of Buckley, the assembled media and a big crowd of school mates, Scott said the conditions gave him an inkling of the pressure he will feel at draft camp.
“If you stuff up a kick your mate will let you know about it. It’s a little insight what’s going to be at draft camp. There’s going to be a lot of pressure with all the recruiters watching. Obviously it’s a good insight to the sort of pressure there,” he said.
Buckley said the draft camp had no previous accurate measure of a player’s kicking skills.
“There was a skills session as such but the feedback from the clubs was that the skills session was towards the end of the draft camp and a lot of the players were sore,” Buckley said.
“A lot of them were running through the skills session somewhere between half pace and three-quarter pace. They weren’t really getting a lot out of it from that perspective.
“The 10 guys we tested today were pretty consistent. We asked them who the best kicks in the group were and the three best kicks turned out to be the three best scorers. Having that transfer to a measure is going to be pretty important.”
