More than 100 QBE Sydney Swans Academy hopefuls nervously lined up at Centennial Parklands on Wednesday evening for the final stage of the Academy’s benchmarking program - the 3km time trial.

Over the last six weeks, the group has taken part in the benchmarking program, which assessed running ability as well as skills and commitment, as selection criteria for the Swans Academy 2013 intake.

Holding the stopwatch at the finish line was Swans Academy Head Coach Paul Roos, who said running capacity has fast become one of the most important attributes of the modern AFL footballer.

“We’ve been working pretty hard doing a couple of sessions a week including a lot of running and a bit of skills and the trial gives us a chance to see how much they’ve improved,” Roos told SwansTV.

“We’re just trying to follow on because we know with AFL football and where it’s at, if you can’t run, it’s very, very difficult no matter how skilful you are, so that’s one of our benchmarks.

“We want boys who get drafted to the Swans to already be able to run so what we’re looking at is roughly how these boys go at their 3km and obviously the younger they are the more they have to improve over the next two or three years.”

One Academy athlete who was a clear standout in Wednesday’s final trial was 17-year old Jack Hiscox, who took out the 3km trial in 9’40’’.

What made Hiscox’s run even more impressive was that the teenager took out the Under-18 800 metre title at the Australian All Schools competiton in Hobart only days before.

Hiscox said he was pleased to clock-in below 10 minutes at the Academy trials following his tough race in Tasmania on the weekend.

“It was really good, I was hoping to definitely get in under 10 minutes, and 9’40” was definitely good and was a nice improvement from last time, so I was happy,” he said.

Hiscox, who plays on the half-back flank for the under-18 Sydney University side, said the Academy benchmarking program has benefited both his athletics and his football.

“I’ve been pretty happy with my performance seeing as we had a bit of time off in between the end of the season and the start of the benchmarking program,” he said.

“It’s been really good for my fitness and for my athletics and just getting generally fitter for next season.

“For me, the Academy has been really good because I’m trying to get my footy to a higher level.”

From the 100-plus boys who took part in this year’s benchmarking program, just over half will progress through to next year’s Academy program.

While running ability is a key component in Academy selection, Roos said it was not the only criteria he and his coaches would consider.

“For our under-16 boys who are going into the under-18s, there are about 45 boys who will be going down to about 30, and our under-15s going into under-16s will be a big cut of about 80 down to about 45,” he said.

“The three criteria we’re sort of looking at is the running and the running capacity, obviously skill level is really important, and then just their commitment - do they really want to be part of it, as surprising as it sounds to some, because some boys just don’t want to play AFL football.

“At this stage we’ve got a good idea about what the boys are like as players as well and what they are like on game day, so this is about wrapping it up and just seeing what their 3km time trials are.”

And according to Roos, it’s not all bad news for the boys who miss out on this year’s Academy intake.

“We’ve got a lot of spotters out in club footy and we’ll keep looking and we’ll miss some, without a doubt,” Roos said of the boys who are cut this year.

“We don’t profess to be the gurus of junior football, so we’ll miss some kids because they’ll get bigger and stronger and they’ll start to get a bit more of the ball at club footy, so certainly there will be some boys who will drop out and then will hopefully get back in at some point.”

3km Time Trial Top Performers:

Under-15   
Charlie Wood: 10’00’’
Tim Tegg: 10’16’’
Callum Mills 10’31’’

Under-16+
Jack Hiscox (U17): 9’40’’
Jordan Foote (U16): 9’52’’
Erol Sertbas (U17): 9’59’’
Bradley Watson (U16): 9’59’’