Junior Representative | Northern Football Netball League

The NFNL Junior Representative Development Program is a program providing selected high standard level NFNL Junior players the opportunity to develop their football skills, training ethics and off-field skills while representing the NFNL in the annual AFL Victoria Metro Junior Development Series.

The NFNL, in addition to fielding representative teams in the Under 14 Boys, Under 15 Boys and Under 15 Girls competitions in the 2024 AFL Victoria Metro Junior Development Series in June, will also be entering an Under 14 Girls team for the first time.

The competition puts metro leagues against each other across the King’s Birthday long weekend.

Principles

• Ensuring an even, fair and accessible try out system is in place for all club nominated players, recognising additional player physical and skill development occurs during off season
• Ensuring a fair, consistent and equitable selection of players process is in place through an NFNL determined and appointed Player Selection Panels.
• Ensuring finalisation of final selected players is done in a fair but timely manner to maximise program development period of selected players in that competition year.
• To provide selected players a balanced development program with a focus on both on and off field.
• Development of players in a high excellence training program including education focus on off field development areas.

Age Eligibility

• A player may only participate in their designated age group to which they qualify i.e. To be eligible for the U14 competition a player must be 13 years old prior to the 1st of January in the year of competition. To be eligible for the U15 competition a player must be 14 years old prior to the 1st of January in the year of competition.

Try Outs – Club player nomination information

• Any junior representative player nominated by their club at the time of nomination is ineligible to transfer to another NFNL club in that season, unless authorised by the General Manager Football Operations from exceptional circumstances information provided by a parent.

• After the league receives all team nominations for the upcoming competition season (28 February, 2024), clubs will then be invited to nominate players for rep try outs.

• The league will be enforcing a cap on the number of player nominations a club is permitted to submit. This will be based on which division teams are placed in for the upcoming season.
First Division – eight players,
Second Division – four players,
Third Division – two players

Note 1: Any player that has transferred to a new club for the 2024 season is included in the final total of players nominated from a club.

Note 2: Clubs are only permitted additional nominees under extraordinary circumstances. They need to provide evidence to the General Manager Football Operations for this to be approved. (Applications for extended nominees from a club that has included recently transferred players into their nomination form will not be considered.

• Clubs in this process are requested to be realistic and ensure they are ONLY nominating players that are of a very high playing standard and development level. This will ensure your club juniors and their parents are not wasting their own time and then not being exposed to disappointment in being cut immediately. Remembering the final squad of NFNL players will be competing against the best standard players from other leagues.

• The try outs to be selected in the program will be held on both Sunday March 17 and Sunday March 24, 2024. Venue TBA

• Post the try outs phase, the selected players in the final squad and program are required to attend a weekly training and development session commencing in April 2024. The focus of the program is on development, education and training of current high calibre NFNL Junior players in the Under 14 and 15 competitions.

NOTING THAT IN 2024 FOR THE NFNL REPRESENTATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM TRY OUTS:

• ALL players will need to be nominated by their respective clubs to try out and earn their spot in the program at the try out dates;
• Previous season divisional B&F Top 10 players and/or 2023 NFNL representative players will NOT automatically be invited to trial. ALL players must be nominated by their club within the allowed capped total.

Process of Selection of Final Squad Players

• NFNL determined final invitees in each age group will be invited to the try outs which will be held on both Sunday March 17 and Sunday March 24 2024. Participants will be advised of what date and session they are required to attend. Venue & Times TBA
• Post the try outs completion, the appointed NFNL Junior Representative Player Selection panels for each age group will determine all player selections for final squads.

NFNL Behavioural Standards

• Selected persons at all times must be aligned to outlined behavioural standards set out by the NFNL on and off field through that competition year at club and representative level. Persons may be removed from the program at the discretion of the NFNL and replaced for any league determined breaches.

Program Fees

• The NFNL has a set fee each year for selected players which covers the costs of the players representative team uniforms and other areas of the program. Clubs are issued an invoice for this fee per selected player at the conclusion of the program, in which it is for the determination of each club and at their total discretion if this cost is then passed onto parents for their child.