PICKING the captain of the NAB AFL Academy's '20 in 20' team was the final decision for selectors of the squad and perhaps the most challenging, according to the AFL's national talent manager Kevin Sheehan.
Past and present coaches of the AFL's national academy gathered last month to pick the 20-man all star team to celebrate the 20th intake of the academy program.
The team will be revealed on AFL.com.au on Wednesday, and includes five graduates of the academy who have gone on to be AFL captains. Sheehan, who pioneered the academy program, said the captaincy call saw different opinions put forward.
"It was thrown open to the group. The former coaches and selectors had a great group to choose from because there were nine captains that were contenders for that ultimate honour in the initial squad of 90 and five captains have made the team," Sheehan told AFL.com.au.
"All have been wonderful high achievers in the AFL, so it was thrown around for quite a number of minutes around which way to go.
"It went back and forth with everyone having their own slightly different bent on which way it would go. Ultimately there was great support for one individual and it was left to the group to come up with it and they were fairly unanimous in the finish. The one chosen is a very worthy one."
AFL.com.au readers were asked to nominate a captain of the 'best of’ Academy team, with 41 per cent of the more than 13,000 who voted going with Hawthorn’s Luke Hodge.
Recently retired Carlton and West Coast captain Chris Judd received 22 per cent of the vote, while Geelong skipper Joel Selwood got the nod from 12 per cent.
The team includes a range of players from throughout the academy's history, including retired stars, current champions and younger players on track to reach greatness.
Sheehan said the concept was developed to mark the academy's impact on the game over decades, dating back to 1991 when the first Australian youth team travelled to Ireland.
That squad included the likes of Ben Hart, Scott West, David Neitz, Mark Mercuri and Brenton Sanderson – with Sanderson now the head coach of the academy and a member of the selection panel for the '20 in 20' team. It was the forerunner to the annual academy team being named.
"We felt strongly back then about having the best Australian kids coming together and representing their country," Sheehan said.
"Twenty years on we've created something that's been significant in the lives of many people and 400 or so players have gotten into the AFL.
"It's become quite an institution within the AFL pathway and something that kids aspire towards."
The '20 in 20' team announcement will follow the '20 in 2020' NAB AFL Academy representative side that was unveiled last week.
That side was picked from players in the past four academy intakes that selectors believe will be the leading players in the competition by the year 2020.
