Following on from last years successful visit to Auckland, the Victorian Amatuer Football Association will once again play New Zealand Hawks Under 20's in two matches over the October Labour Day weekend on October 23rd and 25th.

This years matches will be played in Christchurch with the New Zealand Hawks looking to avenge the two losses both by 23 points in the inaugural meeting between the two associations. Initial training has commenced in alignment with the Senior New Zealand Hawks campaign who will compete in mid November this year.

AFL New Zealand has also agreed to participate in a reciprocal visit to Victoria in 2011.

The growth of the High Performance programme has resulted in a consolidation of resources with Under 16, Under 20 and Senior candidates all training together. The pathways of the three teams, joint utilisation of training facilities and a pooling of coaching resources results in successful training numbers at a regional level and also provides talented youngsters an opportunity to participate in all three teams.

The Under 20 National Provincial Championship held in March showed an amazing increase in ability as well as an increased interest in representative honours in comparison to the inaugural event in 2009. Senior Hawks coach Justin Davies was very impressed with the Under 20's performances at recent regional testing nights and was excited by the prospect of introducing what could be as many as ten Under 20 players into the senior line up for the Oceania Cup in Auckland in November.