THE NEWEST addition to the NAB AFL Draft Camp's battery of tests, the kicking assessment, has been unveiled in front of a crowd of curious onlookers in blustery conditions on day three of the camp in Canberra.

The new test is the brain child of former AIS-AFL Academy mentor Nathan Buckley, who undertook a study into junior talent development at the request of the AFL, and found coaches and recruiters believed it to be an area that was lacking at the League's showpiece talent evaluation event.

The new drill caused plenty of nerves at the camp with one draft hopeful admitting he had been up at 3am worrying about it, but it was generally well-received. Draft prospects Gary Rohan, Dustin Martin, Matthew Panos, Justin Bollenhagen and Anthony Delborello were among those to impress.

Rohan, a Geelong Falcon who is already a top five prospect, further enhanced his chances with his performance despite admitting to some nerves.

"It was a bit hard with the wind in front of all the AFL coaches and the recruiters that are here," Rohan said.

"It's pretty hard, but you've just got to concentrate. Just look where you're kicking it to and listen to the fella handballing it to you. You just need to block everything else out.

"Me and my brother back home tried this drill. We've got these trees back home and we'd just try and hit the tree." 

Buckley was in the crowd as the drill took place and he was happy with what he saw despite the conditions.

"We don't want it to be blustery, it's not blustery all the time, but dealing with the conditions is part of being a good kick as well," Buckley said.
 
"It's in its infancy but it's a start. It's something that needed to happen.

"This test may not be here next year, there might be something better, and we hope that there is because we want to make sure that whatever is in place is going to separate the great kicks from the poorer kicks.

"It's the beginning of what we'd like to see continue in terms of measuring skills in the game like kicking and handballing."

A player performing the test gets six kicks. He faces away from the target range of six two-metre wide circles on the ground, runs in to receive a handball from the caller who at the same time calls out one of the targets at random.

These are short left or right (20m), middle left or right (30m) and long left or right (40m).

The player must turn around a cone and hit the teammate standing inside that target within the allotted time with points awarded from one to five for each kick with a five earned when the teammate marks the ball without moving.

The test is taped so AFL recruiters can further break down a player's kicking action, but Buckley believed the major upside of the test would be seen in years to come.

"The real benefit for me is for a 13 or 14-year-old who is thinking about an AFL career and wants to be recognised and wants to be the best he can be," he said.

"He knows now that in three or four years time he's going to be measured on his kicking and that's important.

"If I'm [that kid] I know that I'm going to have to work on my kicking because its going to be judged when the recruiters have a look and decide whether I've got an AFL career or not."