While their senior teams fight for points and for players, three Melbourne rivals are working together to build opportunities for talented players in the city’s north and west.

The Western Pathways program, a collaboration between North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, pairs up Next Generation Academy (NGA) prospects with the best players in their region, grants them access to top-line coaching and puts them in the sights of Talent League scouts.

This week saw combined Kangaroos, Bulldogs and “the best of the rest from the west” U15 squads take on equivalent squads from Essendon and the Calder Cannons.

“We noticed a gap for the kids in the west that didn’t have that bridging program from interleague or community footy into the (Talent League) pathways,” Academies head coach Hamish MacInnes explained.

“It’s something Essendon have run for a number of years in their region, so rather than them play a scratch match against Calder, we were able to put together the equivalent and make a day of it.

Run over five weeks and six sessions in North Melbourne and Werribee, the program culminated on Wednesday at Highgate Recreation Reserve in Craigieburn.

The Western and Essendon Pathways girls and boys squads were divided in two, with each ‘team’ taking part in three 20-minute periods of play.

“The big focus was preparing them to play while introducing them to some more specific concepts around offence and team defence, and a little bit of line training,” MacInnes said.

“With such a short window, we didn’t want to overcomplicate things, just to try to add some structure and knowledge around the talent and skills the kids bring to the fore.”

The Western Pathways teams were built first from the best and brightest talent from the Kangaroos and the Bulldogs’ respective Next Generation Academies.

The two clubs then worked with the Western Jets, Western Football Netball League and interleague coaches to top up the teams.

“If you do it well it should be a collaborative approach, because you’re not really competing for talent,” MacInnes said.

“What was great for our academy kids was to see them in a context where they were training and playing with the best kids from their region.

“So it develops them and helps us see where they’re at against that competition as well.”

Early in the day, established Roos prospect Ava McDonald had 12 disposals, 10 of which were contested, while Aggie Mathieson and Ciara Smith were also regulars on the ball.

In the boys’ matches, Lual Deng, a familiar face to those who have followed the re-establishment of the Roos’ NGA, caught the eye off half-back.

Josh Auber was an early standout with 18 disposals and two goals in the first boys game.

In the second match, Kaden Page notched up 18 disposals and four clearances, and Jad El Haouli collected 16 disposals.

The program was supported by Bulldogs coaches, WFNL interleague coaches and Jets assistants.

Premiership Roo Kate Shierlaw and AFLW midfield coach Ryan Pendlebury were also there to coach the players from the bench and through the breaks.

“Kate’s been awesome … for the girls to have someone like her there and to have that visibility for our W program has been fantastic,” MacInnes said.

“Ryan’s our head of football performance so he structures the high performance side, and he’s been really good.”