Wednesday, January 28, 2009

State under-14 and under-15 trials are underway

The selection process for the State under-14s and under-15s has commenced, with trials conducted in Devonport, Launceston and Hobart this week.

"We commenced our trials in Devonport on Monday," said State under-14s coach, Ken Morton.

"We went all right. From the North-West squad that Micky Denton coaches up there, fourteen of the sixteen players turned up and there's some quality in there.

"Young Alexander Goggin, or 'Moo' as they call him, has been identified by Liverpool, Derby County and one other club.

"Tommy McGinn's lad, Daniel, is a smart player.

"Brady Grey, the defender, is a talent. He's a good player.

"He reads the game well, plays at the back and is a good distributor and a natural leader.

"I like the look of him.

"Out of fourteen, there were some promising players, some of whom I'd class as fighting to get into the final squad, so that was a good try-out for me."

Morton said he was disappointed with the trial in Launceston.

"The turn-out was not so strong and maybe only one or two showed the credentials that are needed to become a State player," he said.

Trials for the under-14s and under-15s, the latter coached by Chris Hey and assisted by Mark Loftus, were held at the Cornelian Bay grounds this morning.

"This morning, we had a group of 38 in the under-14s, and the under-15s had 31, making a total of 69 players trying out," Morton said.

"The next step, now that we've had a look at them in the regions, is to ask them if they feel confident of going forward.

"If they do, then they should attend the next training session, which will be at Churchill Park in Launceston on Sunday, 8 February.

"That'll be for players from all the regions.

"From there, we'll start to cut the numbers down and get to a better working level of maybe 25, 26 or 27 players, or something like that."

* * * * *

Meanwhile, the Tasmanian Institute of Sport men’s team has returned after competing in the Institute Challenge in Canberra and finishing joint fifth with the Victorian Institute of Sport and the ACT Institute.

“On a count-back, Tasmania was placed seventh because we missed out on a play-off with Northern NSW, which was unable to field a side on the final day because of injuries,” said TIS head coach, Dean May.

“Overall, it was a good performance by the TIS and allowed us to truly gauge where we are nationally.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What's this countabck stuff? The TIS either finished 5th or 7th. There were a couple of good results - its OK to say 7th!