Twelve of the Coast’s best young athletes will be put through their paces in the Gold Coast SUNS Combine at Saint Stephens College on Sunday.

As a prelude to the 2010 NAB AFL National Draft next week, the Gold Coast SUNS Talent Academy are searching out young men looking to try their hand at AFL football, in the hope of securing a tryout with AFL Queensland’s Gold Coast Under 18 representative side, the Scorpions.

The 12 were chosen after excelling at the various athletic and skills tests done during the Gold Coast Combine held last month, leading the way in pursuits such as the 20 metre sprint, vertical jump and 2km time trial tests, as well as kicking and clean hands drills. They will be joined by 18 other athletes from the Brisbane area on the day.

The idea behind the Combine is to test the suitability of the athletes to AFL football and gauge their interest in potentially crossing over from their current sports.Two Gold Coast SUNS’ players attending the Combine on Sunday know first hand the benefits of swapping sports to play AFL.

Both Karmichael Hunt and Zac Smith played representative sport at high levels in other sports before making the leap into AFL, Hunt trying his hand at both Rugby League and Union, and Smith playing for Queensland in both indoor and outdoor soccer.

Gold Coast SUNS Talent Academy manager Andrew Johnston said that opportunities like the AFL Combine gave youngsters a chance to see the skills they have in their current chosen sport, can be transferred across to become AFL players.

“It might take them 12 months, it might take longer than that, but this gives them their initial chance,” said Johnston. “You never know what can happen. Luke Dempsey-Ceh came for the Combine 12 months ago but didn’t make the next stage. He ended up playing at Broadbeach, then came back to the search again this year and he’s made the 12. That’s just a great story.”