The four-day NAB AFL Draft Combine kicks off on Thursday 6 October at Etihad Stadium with 80 player’s invited from across the country.

The Hyundai Help For Kids Lions Academy is preparing its players for the Combine which will see three Queenslanders, Jacob Allison, Declan Watson and Elliot Himmelberg heading down for testing.

Last year it saw Ben Keays, Eric Hipwood, Reuben William, Corey Wagner and Mabior Chol head to the Draft Combine for testing with a total of 11 Academy players drafted to an AFL club at the National AFL Draft. 

In addition, Queensland’s Jack Roll’s will head down for the Queensland State Combine where they test with the Victorian and Tasmanian players.

Lions Academy Manager Luke Curran gave a quick overview of the Academy boys heading down for the Draft Combine:

Jacob Allison

Jacob’s finished off the season really well with our NEAFL team. He had a reasonable National's program came back and played really well on the wing. Really good GPS figures, played his role really well. Has been training really hard the past 4 weeks to get ready for the Combine.

Declan Watson

Declan had to sort of build on the season from the start of the year and he’s been playing really good football for Queensland as well as the U18 Allies side. He was transferred to the NEAFL team in the back half of season - had some challenges playing on some key position AFL players and some pretty reasonable forwards but still showed good signs. And like Jacob, and Elliot, they’ve been training hard with us for the last 4 weeks, looking to build endurance and body strength and get ready for an AFL pre-season somewhere.

Elliot Himmelberg

Elliot hasn't played footy since late May-early June due to a stress fracture in his leg, so he’s been in rehab for awhile now doing light exercises and light training to recover from that injury. Elliot’s unlikely to do any of the testing at the Draft Combine but will still go along to do all the interviews and the off field component.

Queenslanders drafted in the 2015 National AFL Draft:

Eric Hipwood – Brisbane Lions (from Lions Academy)

Ben Keays – Brisbane Lions (from Lions Academy)

Reuben William – Brisbane Lions  (from Lions Academy)

Mabior Chol - Richmond (from Lions Academy)

Corey Wagner – North Melbourne (from Lions Academy)

Wiley Buzza – Geelong (from Lions Academy)

Josh Wagner - Melbourne

Paul Hunter - Adelaide Crows

Matthew Uebergang - Fremantle

Josh Smith - Collingwood

Jesse Joyce - Gold Coast SUNS