No fewer than seven club captains were among the squad of 24 All Australians that trained at the GIANTS’ facilities at Sydney Olympic Park ahead of Saturday night’s test against Ireland in Perth.
The likes of Luke Hodge, Joel Selwood, Patrick Dangerfield, Nat Fyfe and Nic Naitanui trained in front of fans for over an hour on Tom Wills Oval, with special goal posts and a rectangular field marked out for the occasion.
GIANTS Coach Leon Cameron was on hand to welcome the stars to the GIANTS’ Learning Life Centre and cheekily suggested some might like to stay.
“If any of those Australian boys want to duck off to the office and sign a couple of contracts for the GIANTS, we’ll do that afterwards ok?
“For those guys to come to our facility, we think it’s fantastic. Our young fellas will get a lot out of watching them train today and also play a practice match against an Irish side tomorrow.
“We think it’s fantastic guys like Jarrad McVeigh, Travis Boak, Sam Mitchell, Luke Hodge can actually be in our training facility over the next couple of days and we wish the Australian team all the best on Saturday against the Irish.”
AFL Football Operations Manager Mark Evans acknowledged the GIANTS ‘ support, with the Australian team to also play a practice match at Tom Wills Oval tomorrow afternoon.
“I would like to say thanks to the GIANTS, when they made the offer we were delighted to be able to bring our players here to what is the best training facility in Sydney,” he said.
Cameron said he hoped to see a few of his own players learning off the stars for future series.
“As a coach of a footy club, a lot of our young players actually would love to play in the All Australian side and I’d encourage it strongly,” he said.
“It’d be fantastic to see a couple of GIANTS running around next year. A lot of these young players really, really want to represent their country.”
Fans are welcome to come down to the GIANTS’ Learning Life Centre at 1 Olympic Boulevard, Sydney Olympic Park on Tuesday for a free BBQ and to watch the Australian team take on Sydney’s best Gaelic players.
Tuesday November 18
The team will play a practice match against the best Sydney Gaelic players from 1.45pm to 3.30pm
Australian Squad:
Grant Birchall, Travis Boak, Luke Breust, Patrick Dangerfield, Dustin Fletcher, Nat Fyfe, Brendon Goddard, Robbie Gray, Brent Harvey, Luke Hodge, Kieren Jack, Steve Johnson, Jarrad McVeigh, Sam Mitchell, Leigh Montagna, Nic Naitanui, Nick Riewoldt, Tom Rockliff, Joel Selwood, Brodie Smith, Nick Smith, Harry Taylor, Jobe Watson, Chad Wingard
