Individuals undertaking the Football Development Program will spend an additional one to two days a week, on top of their studies, undertaking a range of football development activities to help build their skills. These sessions are across a wide array of development areas, including the below. 

The Football Development Program will run from February – November in 2025 and is typically structured as followed: 

These sessions will be aligned to individual abilities and are conducted to complement existing training with home clubs. 

OUTCOMES

After a year undertaking the football development program, participants can expect to have developed a better understanding of their own game as well as tactics and strategies used by elite footballers to continue to work on areas of improvement. 

Physically, they will have spent a year in a high-performance environment, using AFL standard facilities to recover from, and prepare for , games, gaining an understanding of what preparation looks like at the top level of the sport. Individualised strength and conditioning programs will ensure participants are improving areas of physical deficiency and reducing the risk of injury. Injured students will have access to recovery and rehabilitation support typically only available to full-time athletes.

For specific graduate athlete outcomes, you can refer to our graduate athlete page here.