Three Northern Knights players have been named in the AFL National Academy squads for next year.<\/p>\n
Fifty of the country\u2019s most talented young footballers have been selected to take part in the academy during their draft year.<\/p>\n
Each of the boys and girls squads feature 25 players who were born in 2008 and will be eligible for the 2026 drafts.<\/p>\n
The Academy provides the next generation of stars with valuable experiences, insights and education to best prepare them for the next steps in their football journey.<\/p>\n
The holistic program combines football performance and personal growth in a high-performance environment by providing unique opportunities and learnings that differ from other football programs they are involved in.<\/p>\n
Content is delivered across multiple football camps, with the 2026 program to commence with a high-performance camp at the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport (NZCIS) in December.<\/p>\n
The boys squad includes 13 players who were selected in last year\u2019s under-16 boys all-Australian team after impressing at the 2024 AFL National Development Championships.<\/p>\n
Tate Hodgson, who is from Park Orchards NRP, Lewis Houndsome who is from Yarrambat, and Harry Van Hattium from St Mary\u2019s are the three Knights players in the boys squad.<\/p>\n
No Calder Cannons or Western Jets have been named in the girls or boys squads. <\/p>\n
AFL National Academy manager Tarkyn Lockyer said one of the aims of the academy was to provide new experience to up-and-coming stars.<\/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,\u201d he said.<\/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":"Three Northern Knights players have been named in the AFL National Academy squads for next year. Fifty of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-275984","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\/275984","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=275984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}