The golf program was one of three to tee off for the year, with the Armidale City/Carlo’s IGA netball and Wests Hockey squads also convening in Armidale yesterday for their first regional training days.

The AFL program also kicked-off yesterday, with trials for the first-ever intake.

It saw a good roll-up, with 21 of the 25 applicants able to make the trial.

Former Tamworth Kangaroos coach Tim Cotter is heading up the program.

He’ll be assisted by Josh McKenzie and two-times Gillies medallist Matt Hodge.

“We’ve got a good spread of players,” Cotter said.

The squad is open to players between 12-16 and has drawn interest from players from Armidale, Tamworth, Inverell, Walcha, Narrabri and Delungra.

The golf camp ran Saturday and yesterday and started with some testing at Rural Fit.

“They gave as some exercises we can work on each session to try to increase their flexibility,” head coach Brock Sampson said.

There will be a bit more focus on that side of things this year.

“Last year we had a session at the start and a session at the end,” Sampson said.

“This year we’ve set aside an hour before we come down to practise on the fairways.”

After that, they went through some drills and then played a round in the regular Saturday competition.

Yesterday it was onto the greens.

“We’re working on a few putting drills,” Sampson said.

“I just choose a couple of aspects each session to make sure we cover everything.”

This year is a bit of a first for the program, with Armidale’s Bronte Walsh the first female to be involved.

She’s joined by Walcha’s Andrew Brennan, Tamworth’s Tom Gill, Bective’s Jock McPherson and Tenterfield’s James Shaw.

All four  of the boys are returning from last year’s program.

It is a smaller squad then recent years but will allow Sampson to give them more one- on-one attention.

There is a handicap restriction to make the squad – 12&U for boys and 18&U for the girls.

The weekend camp was the first of four times Sampson will see them over the course of the program.

“We’ve got a couple (of sessions) in February and one in March,” he said.

That will lead into the Clubs NSW Academy Games, which the squad will participate in in March.

They’ll also play in the Peter O’Malley Junior Masters at Bathurst.

“We played in it last year,” Sampson said.

“They have a bit of an academy challenge.”