AFL Draft Combine
Over four days participants are required to undergo a series of medical, psychomotor, athletic and fitness tests as well as interviews conducted by the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League.
The testing results measured at the combine are used to inform recruiters of players' athletic attributes and skills heading into the AFL Draft, which is held in November.
[6] In this test an instrument called a Vertec is used to measure a player jumping off one leg from a running start.
[6] This is similar to the running vertical jump; however, the player instead takes off on two feet from a stationary start.
[6] Matthew Lloyd designed this test to measure how well a player takes possession of a football and is able to dispose of it using a handball.
[6] Measurements of a player's height, weight, skinfolds, arm length and hand span are all recorded.
It is estimated over 100,000 people participate in the sport outside Australia[14] and the Australian Football International Cup takes place every three years in Melbourne, where teams from 18 countries compete against each other.
[15] With the exception of international rookies, the AFL however has traditionally looked outside of its grassroots player base for amateur and professional athletes from other sports with transferrable skills.
Each year, a minimum of two of the group were chosen to partake in the AFL National Combine held in Melbourne.
From 2015, the AFL shifted its focus exclusively to rucks; and, as such, all 15 participants from the 2015 combine were from a college basketball background.
After a poor yield between 2015 and 2017 while scouting for American athletes over 2 metres tall, the AFL put the program on hold to focus on talent in Ireland and New Zealand.
Since 2015, it has been run by International Talent Manager Tadhg Kennelly, a former player for the Sydney Swans who was originally drafted from Ireland.
[22] Unlike the key positions sought from US and New Zealand athletes, AFL clubs are typically searching Ireland's gaelic talent for running midfielders and attacking (rebound) defenders.
During a drought in combine talent, former Irish player Pearce Hanley in 2016 was critical of the format as a recruiting method due to its primary focus on athletic testing over game adaptability.
[24] In 2022, the AFL flagged a return of the European Combine; however, it did not oversee them in 2023, with independent recruiters holding trials in Ireland instead.
