By ROY WARD
ENDEAVOUR Hills resident Damien Garner has made the VFL academy squad for 2013 in his first season at VFL level.
Garner joined Frankston Dolphins for this season after playing a prominent role in Rowville Hawks’ premiership win in the Eastern Football League division 2 competition last year.
Jason Pongracic, who starred for Dandenong Stingrays in the TAC Cup last year and now plays with the Dolphins, has also made the squad.
The 18-man squad is made up of VFL players who have shown the potential to earn places on AFL lists and AFL rookie lists in the near future.
After initially naming a 34-man squad, the squad was trimmed down to 18 with a few future places being made available later in the season.
Former AFL ruckman and past Dandenong Stingrays region manager Darren Flanigan will coach the squad, which will do specialist training sessions with leading coaches with the aim of making the players good enough to earn a place on an AFL rookie list.
This is the second year of the academy with Kyle Hartigan (Adelaide), Dean Towers (Sydney) and Jack Frost (Collingwood) all earning elevation to AFL level last year.
“We’ll look at time management, injury prevention, diet and psychology, and create an individual development plan,” Flanigan said. “We’ll ask the guys to reflect on the reasons they think they were overlooked by AFL Clubs and work out what deficiencies we need to work on.”
The 2013 VFL academy squad: Nick Rippon, North Ballarat; Sam Collins, Box Hill Hawks; Ryan Exon, Box Hill Hawks; Brandon Wood, Box Hill Hawks; Luke Tynan, Casey Scorpions; Jason Pongracic, Frankston; Damien Garner, Frankston; Leigh Kitchin, Frankston; Jordy Williams, Frankston; Thomas Gribble, Geelong; Jacob Ballard, Northern Blues; Sam Gilmore, Port Melbourne; Nick Papaleo, Port Melbourne; Chris Prowse, Port Melbourne; Mitch Wooffindin, Port Melbourne; Darcy Fort, Werribee Tigers; Jake Wilson, Werribee Tigers; Simon Deery, Williamstown.
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