Three Greater Western Sydney GIANTS International Scholarship players from Nauru, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea joined the GIANTS squad on the track at Blacktown International Sports Park today.

Yoshi Harris, Charlton Brown and Theo Gavuri have all been signed by the GIANTS under the AFL’s International Scholarship scheme and are currently in Australia playing for the South Pacific Nations side in the Under 16 National Championships.

Harris, Brown and Gayuri were identified at last year’s Oceania Championships, which were attended by GIANT Israel Folau along with Karmichael Hunt and Nic Naitanui.

The players will be on scholarship with the GIANTS for two years and in that time the club will track their development through the AFL staff in each of their countries.

Since 2008 AFL clubs have been able to offer scholarships to international talent who are between the ages of 15 and 23 from all regions outside of Australia, excluding Ireland.

GIANTS Senior Assistant Coach Mark Williams said that he was impressed with the tackling and ball skills that the three scholarship players displayed in today’s session.

“I think that they joined in the training session really well and kicked the ball well.

“They showed some nice talent for young guys with a limited football background, that’s for sure.

“The thing that impressed me the most was that they were quiet and shy people but as soon as they get out on the track and they crossed that white line, they showed a different angle. They know that if they want the ball, they’d better yell out for it and they did that,” Williams said.

“We were doing some tackling and they’ve certainly got that skill down pat. They had a crack at some of our young players, which was great to see.

The South Pacific Nations had a successful start to the Under 16 Championships, defeating Tasmania by two points yesterday.

Williams said that the South Pacific victory is a testament to the talent in the region and the pathway that is provided for talented International youngsters to enter the AFL.

“It’s amazing. I don’t think that our Tassie boys, Andrew Phillips and Sam Darley were too impressed with the Tasmanian side getting beaten.

“It just shows that there is some real talent there and that if they work hard now, they’ve got a great pathway into the AFL.”