AFLW Academy members continue development in Canberra

The best young female footballers from around the country travelled to Canberra this week as a part of their training with the NAB AFL Women’s Academy.

AFL NSW/ACT Rams, Georgia Garnett (Western Sydney), Lillian Doyle (Grafton) and Tarni Evans (Tathra) were among the group of 42 players to take part in various training and team bonding exercises at the Australian Institute of Sport.

With a focus on fundamental skills, strength and conditioning and the professionalism of an athlete, the Under-18 and Under-16 year olds continued their footy development under the watchful eye of their coaches, including the AFL Women’s Talent Manager and Geelong player, Aasta O’Connor.

Tarni Evans said, despite the heat, the week in the nation’s capital has been another plus for her development in the sport.

“The coaches have organised all these great opportunities to build our professionalism in the way we go about our sport and the way we live in general,” said Evans.

“It’s been a really fun week so far just trying to act like a sponge and just soak up as much information as we can from the knowledgeable coaches and everyone else that’s talked to us about the ways to improve our footy throughout the week.”

Georgia Garnett said one of the greater aspects of the camp in Canberra was being able to form friendships they will be able to carry throughout any fledgling AFL Women’s career.

“Throughout the week we have been doing some craft sessions to work on our fundamental skills and also to really hone in on our areas of improvement,” said Garnett.

“We’ve had our big training sessions where we applied what we had learnt to game situations and drills.

“It has been an awesome experience and some great friendships have been formed. To say you’ve got mates from all across Australia is pretty cool.”

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