ONE of Australia’s most innovative sporting programs is coming to South Australia thanks to the sponsorship of the Port Adelaide Football Club, giving aspirational AFL footballers a chance to fast track their development while playing junior football.

Rookie Me is an online and on-track development program that gives young footballers the chance to test and compare themselves against fellow local footballers, and players across the nation.

Port Adelaide is sponsoring Rookie Me in South Australia, with the first testing day to be held during the coming school holidays at Prince Alfred College on Wednesday 15 July.

On the day, male and female footballers aged from 12-17 will have the opportunity to work with footy professionals in a range of AFL-standard tests to see where they rate alongside their peers, and learn where they can improve their football fitness and craft at their level of the game.

Through Port Adelaide’s sponsorship of the program, players will be able get the AFL testing experience for free when they register using the promo code PAFCRookieMe.

Jasper Pittard is one Power player who knows the value of elite development at a young age, like many AFL players, he came through junior development leagues like the TAC Cup before being drafted into the national competition.

But he says the Rookie Me program is one that will add value and opportunity to South Australian juniors from a young age.

“This has been a really successful program in Melbourne for the last five years so it’s really great that it’s now coming to Adelaide now,” said Pittard.

“It would have been great to be part of this when I was playing junior footy, and the chance to be able to see how I rated compared to other players around the country is something I think is really cool.

“Hopefully the first one gets a good turnout and it becomes a real success going forward.”

This is the first Rookie Me program for Australian Football to be held outside of Victoria.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR FREE USING PROMO CODE PAFCRookieMe