Slater & Gordon GIANTS Academy staff are in Coffs Harbour this week to unearth the finest young talent in New South Wales at the 2012 AFL Joss State Zone trials.

The best young footballers from across NSW are split in to eight zones for the state trials. Four of these zones play under the GIANTS banner with teams representing, Western Sydney, Murray, Riverina and the ACT/South Coast Regions all taking part.

The Slater & Gordon GIANTS Academy side will be selected from the State Zone trials,. This representative side will then go on to play in an AFL Academy Series against the Sydney Swans, to determine selection for the NSW/ACT Rams.

Slater & Gordon GIANTS Academy Manager, Lachlan Buszard said that he was excited about the carnival, which kicked off last night, and impressed by the standard of football in the early stages of the competition.

“We’re really excited to be back in Coff’s Harbour for this year’s state carnival. It’s a great competition and an excellent opportunity for us to scope talent for our Academy pathway,” he said.

“I think that generally across the carnival the zones are pretty even and last night we saw some fast flowing football. I thought the standard was great and it should make for a really interesting week here.

“Certainly the standard of football has improved from over the last number of years. The Western Sydney side won both of their games last night, which is certainly a first at Under 18 level.”

Buszard said that the Academy staff would have their work cut out for them identifying the best talent over the next two days, given that the standard is so high.

“Overall it’s going to be interesting to see how the sides progress over the next two nights,” he said.

“It’s going to be pretty tough work to be playing two games a night over three days, so it will be interesting to see how they adapt. There is going to be a lot of players who have really come into contention, it’s actually going to be really tough to select but very interesting to watch.”

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