By Jonty Ralphsmith
It’s a cold and wet Thursday night at Doveton Doves’ base in 2019
The conditions are motivation-sapping, players could quite easily be going through the motions after a long day’s work, but within the squad are Connor Macdonald, Deakyn Smith and Kobi George.
All three were at the time involved at the Dandenong Stingrays, always pushing to find the extra one per cent with their footy.
The trio are in the upper echelon of players in attendance that night, along with skipper and ex-Sandy Dragon Matt Stapleton, and it is them setting the standard.
“We’re at training twice a week, let’s make the most of every minute,” they say silently through their actions, dragging the bar of expectation up.
As much as being a talent pathway program, the NAB League also serves as a vehicle which assists grassroots footy.
Players who have been exposed to NAB League programs not only bring talent back, but also work rate and intensity to make the local scene stronger.
“There’s very few who don’t go back and contribute to the local scene,” said Gippsland Power talent chief Scott McDougal.
“People think it is all about the AFL – it is a talent pathway designed to give kids the opportunity to live that dream, but so many kids have been great VFL players or gone interstate off the back of their footy.
“It’s that ability to get them to understand that the important thing is process, and you’ll find your own level, so we’re just as proud of kids who go back to local clubs.
“We’re here to make individuals be the best they can be: they have to have those traits, we don’t create them, we just help them identify them and move forward with them.”
Given NAB League programs have an individual development focus, while local clubs are far more slanted towards team success, players’ skillsets can improve from interacting with players in the talent pathways.
It can inspire juniors to be aspirational in their sporting endeavours, and build culture among the older brigade.
Enjoying a beer after training is always that much more wholesome when you’ve put in the hard yards out on the track.
“If that calibre of player comes to your club, he’s driven and motivated, he’s doing it with the pursuit of reaching the AFL,” said Martin Stillman, who has been involved in NAB League club Calder Cannons’ and was this year in Doveton Doves’ footy department.
“He won’t just be jogging through, he’ll be demanding higher standards and pushing others – if you’ve got players doing that, it’s an injection of enthusiasm and excitement.”
Their footy intellect and leadership can also lead to more targeted sessions which engenders streamlined improvement.
Generationally, having a volume of people that understand the ins and outs of talent development serves the region well.
“We’re a door named opportunity: some kids knock it in and kick it in, other kids sit around the front and come in occasionally and get a little bit of that opportunity, it’s about what they want to take out of it and from us is the respect they earn from us when they’re here working hard and being good citizens,” McDougal said.
It means that the next crop are guided and nurtured to reach their capacity before they reach the NAB League, and that honest conversations can be had between local and NAB League clubs about players ready to transition.
NAB League programs are the zenith of junior football.
Reaching one puts a player in the top fraction of a percentage of their age group.
For some, it is the first chapter of elite level football.
For many more, it’s the start of a journey they’ll bring back to the local scene, fulfilling for both club and player.
