Richmond’s Next Generation Academy Tigers have shown their talents at representative level in recent hit outs, highlighting the talent in the Club’s region.
Spanning across AFL Central, Central Murray, Goulburn Murray, North East Border, Sunraysia and Wimmera Mallee, which are the Murray Bushrangers and Bendigo Pioneers regions, there is a great depth of young players emerging.
Youngsters Cody Walker (Echuca) and Tanner Armstrong (Rumbalara/Scotch College) were each named in the Under 16s All Australian squad off the back of excellent National Championships playing for Vic Country.
Russell Clark (Wentworth) also earned selection for Vic Country’s squad; however, he was an emergency for the main games, having had an interrupted lead-up to the campaign due to injury.
Walker, who was named captain for both the All Australian team and Vic Country, and Armstrong put in standout performances across three matches as Vic Country claimed the title on aggregate.
The talented Echuca product, Walker, dominated the tournament with an average of 28 disposals to be named as Vic Country’s Overall MVP.
Armstrong was also noted as a valuable player, receiving Vic Country’s Coaches’ MVP for his outstanding role as a small defender.
The youngster provided run and drive off halfback with an average of 21 disposals, 3.3 tackles, and 4.7 rebound 50s across the tournament while also shutting down highly-rated small forwards from the opposition.
In thrilling style, Vic Country’s final win was due to a “Golden Point” after scores had finished level.
Mildura product Jemmika Douglas also featured twice for Vic Country earlier in the year, impressing with her attack on the ball and long kicking out of defence.
Douglas who is an alumnus of Richmond NGA teams, also played a VFLW game for Carlton during the season.
The Tigers’ current U/15s NGA teams competed at AFL Victoria’s NGA Carnival in April across both boys and girls.
The girls team featured 20 talented young female footballers from the Richmond NGA region; with Emmerson Lihou, Ashanti Walker and Leisi Kiriua-Gill named best players.
Lihou and Kiriua-Gill also travelled to Brisbane to play for the AFL’s Woomeras U/15s Girls team.
Richmond’s U/15 Boys team showed great synergy across their three matches, scoring over 200 points and conceding just seven in strong displays.
The NGA Carnival included cultural elements for the participants, such as a welcome to country and an African drumming workshop.
Richmond was thrilled to see a total of 18 NGA Tigers selected for the AFL’s Kickstart carnival held over the July school holidays, off the back of the Victorian NGA matches.
Kickstart is an AFL initiative for both boys and girls that sees a U/15s Indigenous team play against an All-Nations side of multicultural backgrounds.
