The junior AFL representative squad will face the Gold Coast

The squads had their last training hit out at the impressive new Wiigulga Sports Complex on Saturday with the players saving their best for last.

Following a video session, the players hit the park and put together their best performance of the program.

Northern Heat's program manager, Paul Taylor, said that the improvement in the playing group is very evident.

"The players really showed us that they understand what a modern style of footy looks like," he said.

"With the ball, they're able to create space and move the ball forward using handballs and overlap run. Without the ball, they're applying pressure and compressing the space the opposition has to work with.

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"Saturday's session was fantastic and has set the marker for what we expect to see when we get to the Gold Coast. We're not concerned about the result, what we're focussed on is the performance, and we're challenging ourselves to reproduce the standard we saw on Saturday."

The matches on the Gold Coast will see the Futures (under 16) squad play Broadbeach Cats while the Colts (under 18) will be up against Coolangatta Blues on Saturday, March 18.

The matches are the culmination of the program and are a chance for the players to put the skills and game sense learnt into practice against quality opposition.

"This group has been working together since October, and the commitment shown has been exceptional. Training has been split between Armidale, Coffs, and Woolgoolga, so there's been plenty of travel and plenty of hard physical work," Taylor said.

"The matches on the Gold Coast are a great reward for that hard work and will be a tangible way of showing the players just how far they've improved through that time."

Both matches are at Len Peak Oval, Coolangatta, with the Futures playing at 9:00am (Qld time) and the Colts at 11:00am (Qld time).

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