Promising … Peter Wright ,14, and Brendan Parks, Vic Metro Sports Trainer, are preparing for the under-15 School Sport Victoria Football Championships. 66527Picture: SARAH MATRAY
By Liam Twomey
MARIBYRNONG Secondary College is celebrating an outstanding achievement from five of their students, who have been selected in this year’s School Sport Victoria Metropolitan Football Squad.
Pele Manivong, Touk Miller, Ricky Schraven, Dillion Viojo-Rainbow and Peter Wright, will travel to Canberra in July to represent Victoria in the under-15 division.
Wright, who has been selected as a bottom-age player, believes the experience the boys already have playing together will be beneficial to the team’s chance of winning.
“We will know whether they kick on the left foot or right foot or where they usually kick to. It will be good for us,” Wright said.
The competition has been a great career launching pad for some of the AFL’s best players including Chris Judd, Luke Ball and Jobe Watson. A number of potential draftees will be competing this year.
“It’s good to know that we’re on the right track and doing similar things to what they’ve done,” Wright said.
The boys from Maribyrnong will be joined by four juniors from the Keilor Football Club, Damien Cavka (Catholic Regional College), Corey Ellis (Essendon Keilor College), Nicholas O’Kearney (Parade College) and Zac Wunhym (Overnewton Anglican Community College).
Junior co-ordinator of the Keilor Football Club Dianne Evans said the club was excited to have four juniors make the team for the first time.
“It’s been such a great experience. It allows the boys to see what’s out there, see the competition and move out of the Essendon Football League bubble,” Evans said.
“It will be good for the boys to have a few familiar faces in the team as well.”
Luke Pulitano from Caroline Springs Secondary has also been selected. In total 10 juniors from the Western Suburbs have made the team.
All the successful players were originally nominated by their schools in April and attended tryouts. A preliminary squad of 60 was released and then, after a number of practice games, the final 25-player squad was named.
The competition involves state teams from all over Australia competing against each other. They will be split into pools for preliminary rounds and then will progress to finals.
At the end of the tournament an All-Australia team will be announced, consisting of the best players over the event. This team will travel to South Africa and take part in an international competition.
The championships will also provide players with an opportunity to showcase their abilities in front of talent scouts. With matches being played in the backyard of the AFL’s newest franchise, Greater Western Sydney, Pele Manivong Snr, who is the father of Manivong, believes there could be some high profile on lookers.
“Because it’s in Canberra, we are thinking Kevin Sheedy might be there as part of his work with GWS,” Manivong Snr said.
For the selected boys it’s a great acknowledgment of the effort they put into football. Most of them are training at least three times per week and hold aspirations of playing AFL one day.
“It’s a great reward for effort, he (Manivong) works really hard. He eats, breathes and lives footy. He doesn’t even eat junk food,” Manivong Snr said.
The team will begin training together in preparation for the event in the coming weeks before the championships begin on July 23.
