Dan Lehane’s Journey to Australia to Represent the World 18

Dan Lehane is a 17 year old New York native who is in his fourth season with the New York Magpies.  Dan has been selected in the World 18 team that will compete in the under 16 2011 NAB AFL U16 National Championships in Sydney, Australia during the week starting July 11.

As part of his preparation Dan has embarked on a 6 week training program to ensure he is in top match condition for the tournament. He will also be travelling to Australia a few weeks early and playing some local games to get acclimatized.

Dan’s preliminary itinerary is a follows:

• Friday 17-Jun-11: Arrive in Melbourne at 8:20am
• Tuesday 21-Jun-11: Training with Uni Blacks
• Thursday 23-Jun-11: Training with Uni Blacks
• Saturday 25-Jun-11: Play with Uni Blacks U 19’s
• Tuesday 28-Jun-11: Training with Uni Blacks
• Thursday 30-Jun-11: Training with Uni Blacks
• Saturday 02-July-11: Play with Uni Blacks U 19’s
• Monday 04-July-11: 11am - Arrive at Melbourne Uni for 5 day high performance camp
• Friday 08-July-11: Travel with team to Sydney
• Sunday 10-July-11: 1^stgame for the World 18 team in the carnival
• Sunday 17-July-11: Depart Sydney for 10:15am flight

The fixture for the Nationals Championships, Division Two is as follows:

ROUND 2 - Sunday, July 10, 2011 - Blacktown Olympic Park

10:00am MATCH 5 - Tasmania vs. South Pacific
12:30pm MATCH 6 - World XVIII vs. Northern Territory
3:00pm MATCH 7 - NSW/ACT vs. Queensland

ROUND 3 - Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - Bruce Purser, Rouse Hill

10:00am MATCH 10 - Northern Territory vs. Tasmania
12:05pm MATCH 11 - NSW/ACT vs. South Pacific
2:10pm MATCH 12 - Queensland vs. World XVIII

ROUND 4 - Saturday, July 16, 2011 - Blacktown Olympic Park

10:00am MATCH 15 - Tasmania vs. Queensland
12:05pm MATCH 16 - Northern Territory vs. NSW/ACT
2:10pm MATCH 17 - South Pacific vs. World XVIII

Dan's Blog

Dan will be keeping us up to date with a weekly blog so everyone can follow his progress both in American and Australia.  Here is the first installment:

Week 1 – Thursday, June 9

The weekend before I started my training program included a footy tournament and Gaelic football and hurling games.  For the footy the NY Magpies travelled down to Baltimore to play two games of 2x20 minute halves against Philadelphia and Baltimore/D.C.  Our tackling across the ground was great and we stuck to our ball movement patterns so we were able to come away with two wins.  Thankfully that success made the four-and-a-half hour bus ride home (including a minor accident with a New Jersey Transit bus) seem much shorter. 

The next morning I was up for a u-18 Gaelic Football game at 11 o’clock followed by hurling at 2:30pm.  We lost the first game and won the second.

After this long weekend my heels were very sore and cut up.  I wanted to make sure they were 100% before I got going with the running so I gave them two days to get better.   To keep active I did some strength work including a few sets of pushups, squats and jumps, and some core work. Wednesday I started running and did a beep test followed by intervals of sprints, jogging, and walking.  My dad brought me to a parking lot at a nearby park to do the beep test but there was a serious slope, so I was going uphill for half and downhill the other way (even though by the end it all felt like uphill).

Thursday I had a Gaelic Football final with my club the Rangers so I did my workout early on in the day so I could recover for the game.  We lost, but I’ve noticed that I can run a lot more in the games now than at the start of the year, which is a good sign. 

On Friday I did some shorter sprints like 200s, 100s, and 50s.  Saturday I did sprint and agility work in the afternoon that simulates the agility test that they do at the AFL combine.  My mom came along with me to help set up the cones and time me.  Again I was stuck with a slope albeit a smaller one this time since we picked a different parking lot.   Sunday was my day for rest and it was Memorial Weekend so I was glad to have the day free.  I’ll have to take it easy at the barbeques so I don’t have a stomach ache when I’m running again on Monday and Tuesday.

Thanks for reading about my first week of training for my trip to Australia!

You can follow Dan's blog here.