By Shayne Honey
Last Thursday night, the Cardinia Cultural Centre turned a sea of blue when 150 players, coaches and parents from the Officer Kangaroos Junior Football Club hosted Richmond Football Club general manager of Football Performance Tim Livingstone and Ben Cunningham from the Gippsland Power, as part of an extension to the club’s football academy program.
Having already added a strength and conditioning component provided by Your Body Hub to their 2022 academy, and engaging the services of AFL tackling coach Malcolm Bangs, the club pulled off another coup having the likes of Tim and Ben speak to the U13-18 groups, consolidating their academy program as one of the best and most informative in the area.
Ben Cunningham, the Under 16 coach at Gippsland Power spoke to the club about the NAB player identification process, what NAB league clubs look for in players, talent pathways to the NAB league and how important culture, trademarks and expectations are.
Tim Livingstone shared his knowledge and experiences of being involved at Richmond for 14 years.
They began with asking everyone to ask themselves their ‘why’- why they played or coach football.
Tim kept the group engaged and fixated as he encouraged players and coaches to use their strengths and spoke to coaches on how its important to connect with players and plan their coaching sessions.
The Officer Kangaroos’ Football operations manager Jayson Dorey said the club felt it was important to continually build on their academy program, now in its fifth year.
The program already features football training drills based on and led by Melbourne FC Academy and VFLW program coaches.
“To already be able to evolve our academy, to include sessions specified for tackling, along with strength and conditioning and then to secure two guest speakers of the calibre like Tim and Ben, to help mould and reinforce what we as a club represent, it goes a long way to highlight that we don’t just talk about development first attitudes, we coach it ourselves,” he said.
“To look out at over 150 of our players, parents and coaches. To see the level of respect they had for both gentlemen and know they were all engaged and understanding that this was just another layer to being a better footballer and person. It gives us a great feeling in knowing we’re headed in the right direction.”
