New Zealand American Football NZ Men’s Team Combine Series
Wellington
 
Further to the emails sent out regarding the Combine Series we can announce the Wellington Combine.
 
Date:               Sunday 6th October.
Venue:            Wellington College,
                         Basin Reserve 
                         15 Dufferin St,
                         Mount Victoria

There will be two sessions run on the day and both are FREE to attend:

• 11:00am for the Players who have registered for the NZ team 
• 2:00pm for the public Combine which is open to all 16+ athletes whether they currently play American Football or not.

 
Registration:      Each player participating in the Wellington Public Combine must register by filing in the form here.
Registrations will close on Wednesday 3rd October.
You must pre-register in order to participate.
 
Information will also be on hand at these events around how to find more information on American Football Regions and Clubs.

The Combine will include:

• Height
• Weight
• Span
• Vertical Jump
• Broad Jump
• 40 yard dash
• 3 cone drill
• Shuttle run

 
You will need to bring light training gear and running shoes or boots - although there are restrictions on artificial turf as follows:

• All footwear must be clean and mud free before entering the turf.
• Boots can be worn on turf but metal studs are NOT allowed.
• Rubber and plastic studs are permitted.

 
The conditions of use of the turf must be followed and are attached here.
 
The Registration Form for participation in the Wellington Public Combine on the 6th October at Wellington College at 2:00pm can be found here.
The Registration Form for NZ men's team players, that have already registered their interest, to participate in the Wellington Men's Combine at 11:00am on the 6th October at Wellington College at can be found here.

If you have any questions please ask – email Russell: gm@nzaff.co.nz

The inaugural Hawkes Bay Flag Tournament was held this last weekend in Hastings.  The weather was great and the ground was firm giving a great platform for the days play.
The Hawkes Bay Heat were the winners of the Wellington Tournament held in March where they held off a strong challenge by the Nelson Honey Badgers.

The Heat went into the Tournament as the favourites but were upset a new team the Palmerston North Touchdown in the first game. The score was 21 to 7.

After the round robin the standings were:
Touchdown - 6 points
Heat - 4 Points
​Hamilton Phoenix - 2 points
Turangi Misfits - 0 points

After the semi finals the two team that emerged on top were the Touchdown, with a win over the Misfits, and the Heat with a win over the Phoenix.

That set up a repeat of the first game of the day with the Heat looking to reverse the morning result.
Unfortunately that didn't happen with the result being almost the same as the morning 21- 6.

So the 2019 Hawkes Bay Flag Tournament winners were the Palmerston North Touchdown (sometimes calling themselves the "Touchdown Kings").

A big thanks goes to the two referees for the day from Auckland Gavin Graham and Stu Macferson.
They did every game for the day and added to a great atmosphere.

Also a big thanks o John Norris from Engage Video Creations.  They streamed the whole days play and added the extra bits with replays and the refs commentary.  That was a great addition and allowed the audience to be much larger that just the locals. 

As part of NZAFF’s strategic objectives to promote health and safety within our sport and grow participation, we are trialing a program to subsidise the importing of quality American Football equipment into New Zealand. American Football equipment is very expensive even when purchased in the US, so once shipping and import costs are added to get it down to New Zealand it becomes out of reach for a lot of players.
 
For a limited time you can order Schutt American Football equipment via the NZAFF online shop at a subsidised cost which removes most of the shipping and GST / import costs. This gear will be airfreighted into New Zealand so should be landed within 3-4 weeks of full payment being made. The stated costs for selected Schutt gear include all costs to get delivered to the individual purchasers door in New Zealand.
 
We appreciate that given timeframes this will not be suitable for Clubs to apply for Grant Funding for this season, but we believe this could help more individual players to purchase their own equipment and help take pressure of Club stocks. Regions and Clubs are also more than welcome to place orders for their own use.
 
Should there prove to be interest in this initiative, in the future we can consider longer lead times to allow for grant funding applications and also bulk orders, potentially sea freighted, to further reduce costs.
 
Orders can be placed on the NZAFF Shopify site here.

If you have any questions for feedback on this initiative please contact Russell McConnochie (gm@nzaff.co.nz).

NZAFF has recently invested in professional quality timing equipment to allow us to hold NFL style “Combines”.

These Combines will be used as part of player scouting and assessment for National team campaigns such as the Men’s Flag Football team attending the World Cup, but also as a method to drive wider awareness and participation in the sport of American Football.

The first of these public Combines is to be held on Sunday 29th September at the AUT Millennium facility on Auckland’s North Shore (an all-weather facility). There will be two sessions run on the day and both are FREE to attend:

• 1pm - Combine for Senior Men trialling for the potential Mens campaign vs a Victorian State team in 2020.
• 3pm - Public combine open to all 16+ athletes whether they currently play American Football or not.

Similar Combines are also being planned for Wellington, Christchurch and potentially Nelson. NZAFF member Regions and Clubs are encouraged to get their members to attend and to promote as widely as possible. 

Information will also be on hand at these events around how to find more information on American Football Regions and Clubs.

The tests that we will be running are below, with all participants being able to access their test results after the Combine:
• Height
• Weight
• Span
• Vertical Jump
• Broad Jump
• 40 yard dash
• 3 cone drill
• Short Shuttle 

Further details can be found here or you can email gm@nzaff.co.nz with any questions.

The Registration Form for participation in the Auckland Public Combine on the 29th September at the AUT Millenium at 3:00pm can be found here.
The Registration Form for NZ men's team players, that have already registered their interest, to participate in the Auckland Combine at 1:00pm on the 29th September at the AUT Millenium can be found here.