A rugby league convert Brandon has just begun training camps with the South East Regional Academy of Sport for Australian Rules Football.

His favourite team is Essendon and Brandon’s father, Brent said his son just loves his footy.

More than a footballer, Brandon plays cricket and has tried his hand at basketball and swimming. In 2009 the Cooma Cats began the Snowy Supercats an under 14s junior side. That was all the excuse Brandon needed to make the shift from league to AFL - much to the delight of his grandfather David, who moved from Marysville in Victoria to Cooma in 1978 to coach the newly formed Cooma Cats.

Named most improved player in 2009, Brandon is looking to further develop his AFL skills with the help of SERAS this year.

When Brandon heard the scholarships were on offer he jumped at the opportunity to apply. Brandon was the only Cooma player selected among teammates from Eden, Goulburn, Queanbeyan, Yass and Batemans Bay - and most of the side is at least two years older than he is.

“It is such an excellent opportunity for the young ones. There’s two new teams, Gold Coast and Western Sydney, coming into the AFL soon and it’s such a great chance for all of them,” Mr Williams said.

Brandon attended the first information session with SERAS last weekend and learnt all about training.

“We learnt about not training enough, training too much and about injuries to knees and ankles,” he said.

At pre-season training on Tuesday night Brandon was using his new skills to assess the pace of the older Cats training session and said they were training hard enough.

“They train heaps hard,” he said.

Next week Brandon will miss the Cooma Cats and Snowy Supercats training weekend in Jindabyne, but will be working just as hard with the second instalment of his SERAS training camp.

“The next one is more training and skills where they video us and show us what we’re doing wrong,” Brandon said.

Brandon said the SERAS opportunity would not have been possible without the help of his dedicated parents and businesses that sponsored him the $300 for SERAS.

“Thanks to my coach from last year Marty Currie, Fatz Cutz, Frank and Susan Von der Burg, Col Langdon and of course the Cooma Cats.”