By ZAC MILBANK<\/p>\n
SANFL will be represented by five bright young talents in the 2026 Marsh AFL National Academy.<\/p>\n
Headlined by Central District\u2019s Dougie Cochrane, the quintet of Croweaters will begin their AFL Academy commitments with a high-performance camp in New Zealand next month.<\/p>\n
The AFL Academy, headed up by former Collingwood star Tarkyn Lockyer, will also include a camp in Melbourne during April next year, featuring two matches against VFL clubs.<\/p>\n
High-flying Cochrane, who kicked four goals in his Hostplus SANFL League debut this season, will be joined by fellow Bulldog Jack Gordon, who was joint SA U16 vice-captain with Cochrane in 2024.<\/p>\n
SA U16 captain in 2024, Kodah Edwards has impressed through the midfield with South Adelaide while North Adelaide\u2019s Ethan Herbert is presenting as an exciting ruck prospect.<\/p>\n
Glenelg\u2019s livewire forward Gabriel Patterson, the son of former Collingwood rover Stephen Patterson, has also caught the eye with his athleticism and uncanny goal sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the aims of the National Academy is to provide new experiences to our up-and-coming stars outside of what is already delivered at their state talent program to best prepare players for the next step in their football journey,\u201d AFL National Academy Manager Tarkyn Lockyer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thrilled to be able to include a camp at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport as part of our 2026 program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe camp will provide a unique experience for our participants and will give them the opportunity to challenge themselves at an internationally acclaimed facility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By ZAC MILBANK SANFL will be represented by five bright young talents in the 2026 Marsh AFL National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-269524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}