Tom Ellis, with the support of Zach Frederick, identified and recruited prospective athletes to learn the skills of Australian Football and attend three face-to-face sessions in their home town.

 

The athletes were not guaranteed an AFL contract and the program was not backed by an AFL club.

Each athlete attended three face-to-face sessions located in their home town.

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Sean Clarke travelled from Australia and joined Tom Ellis in Sacramento, Houston, and Cincinnati.

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By the end of their third sessions, the athletes were able kick fluently on the run with good technique.

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In addition, the athletes were introduced to handballing, marking and the endurance requirements of the game.

Lucas Reed, 197cm, was recently cut by the Denver Broncos where he was recruited to play the Tight End position.

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Lucas demonstrated the ability to quickly pick up the skills of Australian Football and excelled with kicking and marking.

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Lucas demonstrated high-level leaderships skills and like Josh, was considered too old to be recruited.

The program demonstrated the American athletes can learn the skills of the game extremely quickly.  Their sporting background allowed them to fast-track development.

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Smaller athletes would perform extremely well at AFL level.  There are 1000s of these athletes who run sub-11 seconds for 100m.

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With better funding and support from AFL clubs the program would be able to recruit younger athletes.

In order to maximise the limited face-to-face coaching that would take place, the athletes were provide training in advance via online training.

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Tom Ellis established the relationships with the athletes and would host the sessions.  Sean Clarke would conduct the coaching session from Australia and talk through different exercises they could perform prior to his arrival in America.

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Josh Chichester, 201cm, was the pick of the bunch and would have excelled at AFL level.

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Josh was able to kick on the run, mark at the highest point, run and bounce the ball, and kick to leading targets.

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John demonstrated high-level leadership skills and would welcome extra wok.

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John was close to 25 before being presented to AFL clubs and this was the major reason for him not being offered an AFL contract.

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Deandre Thompson, 183cm, agreed to join our program and showed that smaller athletes can play the game of Australian Football.  

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Deandre, was not considered athletically elite by American standards; however, it was clear that he still had tremendous speed and strength.

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Deandre picked up the skills of Australian Football extremely well where he excelled in kicking, ground ball pick-ups, and running and bouncing.