One of the best coaching panels in local footy might belong to a junior club
Junior football club Yarrambat has put together a star-studded local footy coaching panel and has partnered with AFL legend Brent Harvey’s training program.
Northern
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One of the best coaching panels in local footy might just belong to a junior club.
Northern Football Netball League junior club, Yarrambat, is already one of the region’s biggest but is looking to further enhance its players’ potential through its academy.
The Bats’ academy is led by five-time NFNL Division 1 premiership player and Division 2 premiership coach Blair Harvey.
It also features two-time Division 1 premiership coach Rob Maiorana, Collingwood AFL-listed and three-time NFNL premiership player Brayden Shaw, three-time NFNL premiership player Jarrod Tilley and NFNL all-time leading goalkicker Shane Harvey.
Tim Smith, the NRL’s 2005 Rookie of the Year, is also a part of the Yarrambat academy coaching panel, together with North Melbourne draftee Cooper Harvey, potential top-10 draftee Nate Caddy and Carlton VFL-listed talent Noah Barnes.
Harvey, Maiorana, Tilley, Shaw, Smith and Harvey all have children playing at Yarrambat.
Blair Harvey said the aim of the program was to elevate the young players on- and off-field.
“We’re trying to get as many kids as possible into under-18s competition or if they go into local footy, just to be the best version of themselves,” he said.
“What we’re teaching them is life lessons as well, resilience, culture, it’s more than just football, to work hard in a job, at uni, various things so they’re in good stead when they leave Yarrambat.
“We’re not here to build a footy factory and get every single good kid in the area, that doesn’t work, we’ve got to build a culture.
“It’s all about when these kids progress into senior football they’ve got an understanding of what a gameplan looks like and have a footy IQ they wouldn’t get elsewhere.”
On top of the club academy, Yarrambat has partnered with Brent Harvey’s BoomFit program.
Run together with former Northern Knights talent scout Nathan Skudutis, Harvey – the VFL/AFL games record holder – offers additional fitness and football IQ development training.
“It was just myself and Jarrod Tilley doing the (academy) program last year and Boomer had BoomFit, which he does privately, but I was able to talk him into doing that exclusively for Yarrambat as well,” Blair Harvey said.
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“They hand-pick 21 or 22 kids to go into his program and, what we’re doing with the younger boys – 14s and 15s – we were able to identify a few kids and elevate them after Christmas.
“Our program is a stepping stone to go into the more elite BoomFit program but if we can get as many kids up to speed it’s only going to benefit them – with better footy IQ, skills are better, fitness is better.”
Yarrambat has sights set on several premierships this season.
The club has every team in each age group’s top flight, blue division, and all bar two are on track to play finals.
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