North Melbourne's U15 Academy young guns took to the NEC Hangar last Wednesday to test their mettle in the Western Pathways Program against their Essendon counterparts.

It's the second consecutive season that the program has been delivered, featuring the club’s top Next Generation Academy (NGA) prospects as well as the top non-NGA players from across its two regions in the west and north.

Four matches took place on the day, with girls and boys teams from each region playing four quarters of 15 minutes against Essendon Pathways teams.

"The program was born out of a pathway opportunity that bridges the gap between interleague and community football to the Coates Talent League, so these kids will go into their first pre-season of Talent League at the end of this year," academies head coach Hamish MacInnes said.

“What we do is we pick our best NGA-eligible kids who have been a part of our programs for up to two to three years and then we pick the best of the non-NGA eligible talent in our regions to make up the teams.”

The Western girls’ and boys’ sides were made up of players from the Kangaroos’ Wyndham region, while the Northern teams incorporated players from the Beveridge, Wallan and Kilmore region.

This year marked the first time the northern corridor was involved.

"It’s a new zone for us and there was a lot of work to do to build the program up in that Wallan/Kilmore region," academy coordinator Dan Marie said.

“It was a good turnout, the training sessions were strong, the coaches were all great and we had a lot of local coaches involved from up there as well which was, again, another good way for us to connect with the community.

“There’s a lot of talent out there, there’s also a lot of NGA-eligible kids there, so we got a few new kids into our academy through that and we’ll just keep building.

“Everyone seemed to love it and there’s a good partnership with the Calder Cannons up there as well so we can grow that too.”

After training in Altona (Western players) and Craigieburn (Northern players), the academy squads participated in four lead-in sessions at North Melbourne’s home base of Arden Street where they continued to learn and develop.

“We look to do a little bit of education, but we really try to just give them the platform to play the best footy that they can on the day. We don’t try to do too much in a short period,” MacInnes said.

Early in the day, the Wallan-based Adam Reginato jnr excited with 12 touches and a strong contested grab for the Northern boys, while Ryder McPharlane was the premier ball-winner, finishing with 15 disposals.

“Adam was pretty handy, he’s probably one of our stronger boys in our NGA and will move into our elite program in the next year or so,” Dan said.

“He’s a powerful inside midfielder, a hard worker, good kick and a good mark for his size.”

In the second game, the NGA-eligible duo of Arjun Goswami (seven disposals) and Bilal Dib (five) caught the eye, while non-NGA player Kobe Page dominated, notching 24 disposals and nine clearances.

“We actually played an U14 game last year and Dib was best-on-ground then so it’s good to see him progressing through, he’s a good player,” MacInnes added.

NGA-eligible Gypsy Hutchinson continued to show strong potential for the Northern girls team in the third game of the day, despite Essendon controlling most of the contest.

Point Cook representative Charlotte Burns was busy in the fourth and final clash contest, amassing 11 touches as the Western girls defeated the Bombers by five goals.

Non-NGA player Ruby Kiefel also had an impact, kicking two majors from a team-high 17 disposals.