It has been great being back and training in small groups after the long layoff due to the coronavirus isolation period. The students have been training hard on their skills, decision-making under pressure and fitness. Their attitude and intensity has risen and our standards at training have improved out of sight.
We have been so lucky to have extra coaches come on board and assist with coaching for the last five weeks of term. We have enjoyed having Sam Isles come in on Mondays. He is one of the head coaches from the Suns’ academy and a former AFL player himself. He has been imparting some valuable information and key pointers especially around skill development to our students. Sam will be continuing on Mondays while the Suns’ Academy is out of action, which is a great bonus for the footballer’s at Varsity College. Tim Searl from AFLQ talent has also committed to coaching on Wednesdays. Our own strength and conditioning coach, Ryan Barwick in year 10 has not only been putting the kids through their paces with running but also coaching and lifting the standard of the players. We have also had one of my coaches from my playing days in John Millane, a highly experienced coach, take the skill sessions. The variety of coaches and experiences have really helped our group immensely!
Before the break, we had a number of students trial for both the Broadwater and South Coast representative teams. Unfortunately due to the crisis our under 14 footballers were unable to trial for the South Coast team. We had many students trialling and I was extremely confident that many of our footballers would have been successful in being selected in these teams. I guess, living through this very unique time it has taught us all to be patient and ‘roll with the punches’ and not dwell on missed opportunities. All our footballers have so many more opportunities in the future with both school, club and representative football.
We are still unsure whether the QCup state-wide AFL competition will go ahead for 2020. Last year our girls made it all the way to the state final and we were supremely confident of going one better and taking out the title this year! I am doubtful it will go ahead unfortunately, but regardless we will play games as soon as permitted by the AFL against local schools. I am already in discussions with a number of schools and can’t wait to get out on the field and get back into it. Watch this space for more details.
Club training has now resumed and I’m sure an announcement on the start date for games will be just around the corner. I expect that it will commence the 1st couple of weeks back after the holidays as senior football returns on the weekend of the 11th of July. Looking forward to seeing everyone out on the field putting their training into practice!
Trials for our future Aspire footballers begin next term and I can’t wait to see how the future students in this program perform. Our numbers have continued to grow the last few years which has been great to see.
Good luck for the remainder of the 2020 football season and let’s hope it finishes off with some great football by all our Aspire AFL footballers.
Yours in football,
Simon Foat
