JESSE MONTILE WORLD XXIII TEAM BLOG

The AFL’s Multi-Cultural program continues to promote our great game to people that may have never heard of or been involved with Australian Rules football.

As part of the National 16’s Carnival to be held in Sydney from July 6 – 13, the Multi-Cultural program will field a World XXIII Team that will compete in Division 3 of this carnival.

One of our 16’s Development Squad players, Jesse Montile, was selected by the WAFC to attend a training camp held in Melbourne in early May. Originally born in South Africa, Jesse was one of 8 players selected from Western Australia to attend this weekend training camp.

While in Melbourne the squad had the opportunity to train at the new North Melbourne facility, play a practice game at Carlton’s Visy Park and attend the Richmond vs Geelong game at the MCG. The squad was coached by Carlton great Anthony Koutoufides.

While he was away Jesse was good enough to keep a short diary of his experience in Melbourne.

INTERNATIONAL 23'S TRIP TO MELBOURNE

Flight at 11:00am - Flying with 6 other boys from WA - 2 from Swan Districts, 1 from Claremont, 2 from Perth and 1 from Subiaco.

Once we arrived in Melbourne at 4:15pm we headed to Visy Park where Carlton FC train. I was on a bus mixed with WA boys and SA boys, 3 from SA.

Once at Visy Park, we met the coaching staff and were introduced to the main coaches, Anthony Koutoufides & Chris Johnson. Both of the coaches introduced the 41 boys to what would be happening over the next 3 days. They tried to inspire and motivate the group into being as successful as possible and show us all the different pathways to make the AFL. After this the boys had dinner in the Carlton dining room where former Essendon defender, Jason Johnson cooked the boys dinner in order to show the correct dietary needs.

After dinner the boys did a few team bonding activities as there were boys from all different parts of the world.

Following this we went to the hotel room and went to bed.

Saturday morning was an early start at 6:30am to have breakfast at 7am followed by our medical screenings and physical testing at North Melbourne FC which included a 20m sprint, vertical jump and agility test. This testing went until about 1pm where we then had lunch at North Melbourne followed by an intense training session led by coaches Anthony Koutoufides who joined in the session and Darren Flanagan (former Geelong FC and Collingwood FC Assistant Coach) which went for 2 hours. This involved some different drills made up by the coaching staff.

That evening we went back to the hotel, had dinner and headed to the MCG for the Geelong vs Richmond match. We had tickets provided by the AFL allowing us to sit anywhere and Geelong won the game.

After the game we went back to the hotel at 11:00pm and knowing we had the biggest morning of the camp the next day, everyone went to bed as soon as we got back.

Another early start at 6am, to play our first and only trial game held at Visy Park. The boys were excited to show off their skills and to impress coaching staff hoping to gain selection in the State 16's Carnival held in Sydney. Players were divided into 2 teams decided by the coaching staff, known as Team 'Kouta' and team 'Dash'. The game was successful with few injuries and Team 'Kouta' coming out on top. After the game we went back to the hotel pool for a recovery session held by AFL and former Geelong physio, Nick Ames. He took us in the pool at 2 degrees which the boys weren't very happy about and we had to stay in for 8 minutes and swim.

Following this the boys went upstairs and got an outduction by all coaching staff and had lunch.

Then all the interstate / international boys caught their flight back to where they live. 

It was clear to see that Jesse had a great time in Melbourne. We wish him all the best with final selections for the squad being announced in the next week and for his continued development at West Perth Football Club.

WARD HARRIS

Player Development Manager