Gold Coast Suns and O’Loughlin Catholic College team up for AFL training
The Gold Coast Suns teamed up with a Top End school to train some of the Territory’s future footy stars.
Education
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The Gold Coast Suns have taken their measure of the Territory’s budding footy stars.
Players Sam Clohesy, Alex Davies, and Charlie Ballard joined O’Loughlin Catholic College on school grounds for an afternoon training session on Monday, less than a week before their clash with the Geelong Cats.
Clohesy said he and his teammates took the kids through drills to cover goalkicking and “the basics”.
“There’s a couple good (players) with some skills and they’re all very quick, I can’t catch them,” he said.
About 90 kids attended the training session.
O’Loughlin Catholic College AFL coach and HPE teacher John Kensey said the unique training session was in line with the school’s new AFL elective.
He said the new elective – alongside other sporting subjects such as netball, soccer, and basketball – was making a difference in boosting students’ attendance.
“We really try to use it to make sure they’re getting over 80 per cent (attendance rates), making sure they’re coming to school, their behaviour is up to scratch,” he said.
Mr Kensey said the school’s elective AFL program – which catered to a boys and girls academy – kept up-and-coming footy stars in the sport during the off-season.
“We’re losing these students to other sports like soccer and cricket,” he said.
“To continue to get better, they need to be playing footy all year round to try and keep up with the other states.”
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