Two AIS-AFL Academy students will learn just how demanding professional football can be this week, spending a week embedded at the kennel training alongside the Western Bulldogs.
As part of the AIS-AFL Academy’s program, each player has been invited to join the inner sanctum at one of the 18 clubs to form part of their final year of age group football.
The Bulldogs will provide aspiring AFL players Duom Dawam and Liam Duggan an insight into life as a footballer, giving them the opportunity to live, breathe and eat like a professional athlete for the week.
Bulldogs Development Manager Chris Maple said the two players, both from TAC Cup side the Western Jets, would be immersed in the Club’s training program from running and weights to meetings in the Development Academy.
“They will be involved in most of the program, they won’t do all the training that our AFL players do because they haven’t done the volume of training that is required to even get through sessions,” Maple said.
“But it is a real insight to them of what is required, we have buddied them up with players and they go and learn about the intensity of the training recruited and also the recovery.
“They will just keep learning about the general principles of training and the specifics of AFL footy.”
The two players live locally to Victoria University Whitten Oval, hail from the west of Melbourne.
“We’ve got a good relationship with the Jets and we want to continue to foster that,” he said.
“So to have two young western region boys – one from Bacchus Marsh and one from Werribee - coming into the footy club is fantastic for them and great for us.
“Hopefully they can get a lot out of it.”
The experience can be beneficial for the clubs as well, with a number of players going on to be drafted by their respective team.
Jake Stringer is one who firmed as a potential draftee when training with the Bulldogs in 2012, as part of the AIS-AFL Academy program.
Meanwhile Sam Darley also began his footballing apprenticeship at the kennel in 2010 through the program and has since returned to the Bulldogs, after initially being recruited by the GWS Giants.
