The AIS/Australian Football League (AFL) Academy squad, which boasts some of Australia’s best under-18 footballers, departs on 16 April for its first European tour.

As part of the tour, on 23 April in London, the squad will take on an under-21 European Legion representative team that will include some of the most talented footballers from Great Britain, France and Germany.

AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan said the European tour will provide AIS/AFL Academy footballers with valuable experience at the international level.

‘To represent your country is the highest level one can achieve in sport,’ Sheehan said.

‘On behalf of the AFL, we congratulate all the players who have been chosen to represent Australia and the AFL in our next frontier tour to Europe.

‘This is a wonderful opportunity for Australian football to display its talented youth in the international arena against a region that is growing in both its development and the way in which it has taken to the AFL code, displaying great promise for the years ahead.

‘The AFL would like to thank the Australian Institute of Sport for its support of the AIS/AFL Academy program, which reaches its peak with this international tour.’

While in Europe, the AIS/AFL Academy will become one of the first Australian Football teams to use the European Training Centre (ETC) based in Gavirate in Varese, Italy.

The tour will conclude with a visit to Turkey, where the team will attend the Dawn Service at Gallipoli on ANZAC Day.

The AIS-AFL Academy will play a match against Geelong Victorian Football League club as a curtain raiser to the Richmond versus Collingwood game this Saturday 16 April at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, before departing for London.

The AIS/AFL Academy is a commitment made by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), through the AIS, and the AFL to enhance the sporting, personal and educational and vocational opportunities of our best young players.

Each year the AIS/AFL Academy offers 30 12-month scholarships to young athletes who are entering the last years of their junior football development.

The AIS-AFL Academy squad bound for Europe includes: Devon Smith, Jack Viney, Shannon, Taylor, Brian Coleman-Broom, Stephen Coniglio, Jonathan O'Rourke, Lachie Whitfield, Chris Yarren, Jaeger O'Meara, Rory Atkins, Nathan Wilson, Nick Vlastuin, Sam Mayes, Will Hoskin-Elliot, Jacob Townsend, Alex Sexton, Elliot Kavanagh, Joshua Growden, Matthew Buntine, Jimmy Webster, Matthew Haynes, Shaun Edwards, Jake Stringer, Adam Tomlinson, Jeremy Cameron, Todd Elton, Sam Michael, Liam Mcbean, Joe Danhiher, Brodie Grundy and Liam Sumner.