THE\u00a0Australian Under 17 team as part of the NAB AFL Academy will return to New Zealand shores to take on the senior NZ Hawks national side in a one off game at Westpac Stadium on Monday the 24th of April.<\/p>\n
Led by AFL National Talent Manager Kevin \u201cShifter\u201d Sheehan and AFL Academy coach Luke Power, the team will fly out on Thursday before returning on Tuesday. The trip\u00a0is\u00a0the sixth time the Australian Under 17 side has toured New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe certainly look forward returning to New Zealand once again and building on the successful experiences of past NAB AFL Academy tours.\u201d Sheehan said.<\/p>\n
After five competitive matches since its inception in 2011, the New Zealand Hawks open age team will be looking to record their first win over the AFL Academy.<\/p>\n
The Hawks team last played the Australian Under 17\u2019s in April 2016 at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland where the New Zealanders performed well, but were heavily defeated.<\/p>\n
Brisbane Lions three-time premiership player\u00a0Simon Black<\/strong>\u00a0will run out in the New Zealand team. Black has a rich history associated with AFL football in New Zealand, after being selected in the inaugural New Zealand Hertiage team in 2013. The past three years has seen his role move to a selector of the team in conjunction with fellow selectors\u00a0Warren Jones<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Wayne Schwass<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Black\u00a0was considered eligible for New Zealand with New Zealand being his father\u2019s birth place.<\/p>\n The New Zealand team will be selected from the AFL New Zealand Premiership which commenced on February 12, while the Australian Under 17 team will be made up of the members of the Level One AFL Academy.<\/p>\n Sydney Swans Academy member\u00a0Nick Blakey<\/strong>\u00a0has performed well in the Under 18 Academy Series so far, using his left foot well up forward, while Vic Metro\u2019s\u00a0Ben King<\/strong>\u00a0will be one to watch in defence for the Australians.<\/p>\n Jack Lukosius<\/strong>\u00a0(South Australia) and\u00a0Sam Walsh<\/strong>\u00a0(Vic Country) both performed exceptionally well at the MCG in the AFL Academy\u2019s 20th anniversary match at the MCG earlier this month.<\/p>\n LEVEL ONE NAB AFL ACADEMY SQUAD<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Northern Territory<\/strong>: Michael Mummery ** \u2013 Currently injured<\/p>\n GAME DETAILS:<\/strong><\/p>\n MON, 24 APR 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n Start: 11.30am \u2013 1.15pm (Local time, Westpac Stadium Wellington)<\/p>\n MATCH DAY TIMINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n 9.00am \u2013 Gates open<\/p>\n 9.10am \u2013 Curtain raiser<\/p>\n 11.30am \u2013 Kick off\u00a0NZ Hawks v NAB AFL Academy<\/u><\/p>\n 1.15pm \u2013 Estimated end of match<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE\u00a0Australian Under 17 team as part of the NAB AFL Academy will return to New Zealand shores to take on the senior NZ Hawks national side in a one off game at Westpac Stadium on Monday the 24th of April. Led by AFL National Talent Manager Kevin \u201cShifter\u201d Sheehan and AFL Academy coach Luke Power, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[24,2092,175,63,2093,2094,249,887,892,894,910,145,922,248,986,1058,1082,1181,1233,62,1274,2095,2099,86,76,1383,1555,66,1631,1656,1667,2098,234,1757,69,75,1817,1879,1880,2096,2097,1921,1974],"class_list":["post-24814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-afl-academy","tag-ajak-dang","tag-bailey-scott","tag-ben-king","tag-buku-khamis","tag-chayce-jones","tag-connor-rozee","tag-hudson-garoni","tag-hugo-munn","tag-ian-hill","tag-izak-rankine","tag-jack-bytel","tag-jack-lukosius","tag-jackson-hately","tag-jason-carter","tag-jye-caldwell","tag-kevin-sheehan","tag-luke-valente","tag-matthew-walker","tag-max-king","tag-michael-mummery","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-hawks","tag-nick-blakey","tag-northern-territory","tag-nsw-act","tag-queensland","tag-rhylee-west","tag-ruben-flinn","tag-sam-fletcher","tag-sam-walsh","tag-simon-black","tag-south-australia","tag-sydney-stack","tag-tarryn-thomas","tag-tasmania","tag-tom-joyce","tag-vic-country","tag-vic-metro","tag-warren-jones","tag-wayne-schwass","tag-western-australia","tag-zane-barzen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNSW-ACT<\/strong>: Nick Blakey, Matthew Walker
\nQueensland<\/strong>: Bailey Scott
\nVic Country<\/strong>: Zane Barzen, Jye Caldwell, Ajak Dang, Sam Fletcher, Hudson Garoni **, Sam Walsh
\nVic Metro<\/strong>: Jack Bytel, Buku Khamis,\u00a0Ben King, Max King **,\u00a0Rhylee West
\nSouth Australia<\/strong>: Ruben Flinn, Jackson Hately,\u00a0Jack Lukosius, Hugo Munn,\u00a0Izak Rankine, Connor Rozee, Luke Valente
\nTasmania<\/strong>: Chayce Jones, Tarryn Thomas
\nWestern Australia<\/strong>: Jason Carter, Ian Hill, Tom Joyce, Sydney Stack<\/p>\n