Slater & Gordon GIANTS Academy members have been taken under the wing of senior listed players in a new mentoring program at the club.
Thirteen Academy members from across Western Sydney, the ACT and Southern NSW joined the GIANTS for a training run, coaches’ address and one-on-one session with their player mentor at Sydney Olympic Park to kick off the program.
GIANTS Senior Assistant Coach Leon Cameron said that this was an exciting development for the Academy and thanked those partners who had helped to make this program a reality.
“I think it’s a fantastic initiative that the GIANTS have here with the mentoring of our young lads from the Academy,” Cameron said.
“Basically we’ve got 12 of our players mentoring 13 of our youngsters from throughout the Academy. I think it’s great for them to give them advice about on field performance and also off field with their schooling.
“This couldn’t have come about without Slater & Gordon who have been fantastic for our Academy and PM Capital.
“We have our leadership group, our two Captains Phil and Callan and our Vice Captain in Tom Scully. We also have players like Curtly Hampton, Devon Smith, Adam Treloar, Jonathon Giles and Jeremy Cameron just to name a few.
“They’re all young lads on our list who show that leadership quality and really want to help educate the younger players coming through our Academy.”
General Manager of AFL NSW/ACT, and former mentor with the AIS AFL Academy, Tom Harley praised the GIANTS formulation of the mentoring program.
“Ironically I was just having a meeting with the GIANTS CEO Dave Matthews and he mentioned that Leon Cameron was here with some Academy players that were being matched with Senior listed players for mentoring,” Harley said.
“I’ve had a lot of experience with mentoring through the AIS AFL Academy and not in a formal sense with Geelong but I’m familiar with the processes.
“It’s great to come in and for the AFL listed players to get to know the Academy squads who will ultimately play in our state squads with the NSW/ACT RAMS.
“The club should be congratulated for such an initiative,” he said.
