By Travis Parnaby
TAC Cup clubs recently gauged the fitness levels of their players ahead of the 2009 season.
More than 600 players descended on Victoria University's Footscray campus for a fitness screening day that tested speed, endurance and agility.
Players were also measured for height and weight and completed educative sessions on topics including racial vilification. TAC Cup players also voiced radio advertisements promoting the importance of 120 hours practice for learner drivers, which will appear on 3AW and SEN during the 2009 season.
AFL Victoria High Performance Manager Anton Grbac was thrilled to have all 12 clubs participate in the event on Saturday, March 7.
“This day is fantastic and it’s like a celebration of TAC Cup, with all 12 clubs here under the one roof," Grbac enthused.
“There has been a lot of support from AFL recruiters, which is fantastic.
“Everybody involved in the program is here at the one place, at the one time, which is super.”
Previously, TAC Cup regions were tested separately but this proved impractical, Grbac said.
“This is difficult and the standardisation of tests was non-existent," Grbac admitted.
“(Dandenong region manager) Darren Flanigan came up with the idea of a TAC Cup team turning up on the one day, in the one place and it made a lot of sense.
“You’re not disrupting training, especially for country sides that don’t have a lot of time with their players."
This was realised last year and despite a few teething problems, the day returned bigger and better in 2009, Grbac said.
"For the best young players in Victoria you want to make sure the testing procedures are Mickey Mouse and the facilities are very good because you don't want to compromise testing," Grbac said.
"A lot of these boys’ futures can be dependant on what they score. It may be one of those final deciding factors between player A and player B, especially if there's not a lot of reliable data and an AFL club's making a speculative pick on a player.
"The more credible the data, the more chance an AFL club will look at a Victorian player.
"It's also good for Leon (Harris) and I to see which kid have we missed out, who is an elite level athlete that we can bring in for our National Championship program."
Grbac was particularly pleased with the test results, which saw improvements on last year.
“What I’ve been really heartened by is the test results compared to last year,” Grbac said.
“The beep scores – we’ve had a healthy number of players over 15, 13 is quite dramatic."
The test results would be used by TAC Cup clubs as an aide to manage the players throughout the rest of the year, Grbac said.
"Our challenge is to make (TAC Cup players) aware of what elite level is," he said.
"If we identify an area of fitness that they need to develop because they have draftable qualities in other areas then we can do that.
"It's also great way of saying to a kid after a pre-season 'this is where you're at ' and then down the track, seeing how we are going with our program. There are a lot of good reasons for it."
Last Modified on 14/03/2009 19:47
