Young Blood Roberts Flourishing in SANFL Rookie Initiative

Young star Kye Roberts has gained the opportunity to train with the Port Adelaide Football Club under a new SANFL initiative.

The West Adelaide Football Club are about developing our players and giving them the best opportunity of becoming the best player they can be. As a part of this, the Port Adelaide Football Club have been in continued discussions with our club about the SANFL Rookie Program for 2022.

This program allows an up and coming West Adelaide Player that has some draftable attributes to be involved in the Port Adelaide SANFL team.  This opportunity also allows the player to train once a week with the AFL men’s team to help further educate and develop the player which in 2022 is Kye Roberts.

Kye will play an agreed minimum amount of League games with the Port Adelaide Magpies this season and depending on form it could potentially be every week. If Kye doesn’t get selected for Port Adelaide he will then be available to play for the West Adelaide Football Club.

In season 2023, unless drafted, Kye will come back to West Adelaide and be a strong part of our senior squad and hopefully be a regular League starter.

WAFC Football Manager Wayne Siekman praised the program, “This is a great initiative and something the football department are very supportive of. We would like to thank the Port Adelaide Football Club for giving Kye this opportunity and we look forward to building stronger relationships with them over the coming seasons.”

Kye was extremely excited for the opportunity to learn from an AFL side and benefit from their AFL experience, “I’m really grateful that the SANFL has allowed me to do this because I get this great opportunity to come out here with the more experienced blokes.”

We look forward to seeing Kye grow and develop as an even stronger young player and we look forward to seeing the benefits of this initiative for our Club.