Bartel helps out at the Tigers

GEELONG Cats star Jimmy Bartel lent his experience and skills to young Torquay footballers at a training session last week.

The 2007 Brownlow Medallist and 2011 Norm Smith Medallist was invited to Spring Creek Reserve on March 2 to set up and run AFL-standard drills that he personally picked for the under-16 and under-18 players in the Torquay Football Academy.

Some of the drills focused on the importance of while under pressure and sometimes while being outnumbered.

to appear at the academy this year, with North Melbourne player Jarrad Waite running a specialist training session at the academy’s launch in January.

Tigers football operations manager Kieran O’Dwyer said it was extremely useful for the juniors in the academy to learn from players of the calibre of Bartel and Waite in the preseason.

He said numbers in the under-18 squad were strong, but the club was still looking for players in the hopes of starting a second under-18 side.

The 2016 BFL season begins on March 26.