Football Pioneer: Tyler Norman has played with the Bendigo Pioneers’ Under-15 and 16 teams. He has his sights set on a spot on the club’s 2024 Under-18 Coates Talent League squad list.
Tyler Norman has stepped up on two fronts in 2023, not only surrendering his final season of Under-16 football, but also entering the workforce.
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The future-focused goalkicking mid-fielder is attempting to fast track his selection into the Coates Talent League, his eyes firmly fixed on earning a spot on the Bendigo Pioneers’ Under-18 list in 2024.
Norman, who is still eligible for Under-16 competition and has just finished a two-game stretch with the Pioneers’ Under-16 development team, has also started a building apprenticeship with renowned Kyabram builder Geoff Howard.
While having one eye firmly fixed on advancing his football career the son of former district football star Jason is balancing that vision with his pursuit of a building qualification.
He was completing a work experience program with Howcon Homes when the opportunity to begin an apprenticeship came up last month — and he jumped at it.
So, he is now building careers on two fronts — in sport and professionally.
The athletic teenager has progressed through the ranks of the Pioneers program, involved in both its V/Line Cup games last year while finishing in the top three as a bottom-age player with the Kyabram Under-16 team.
A year earlier, in the season immediately following the abandoned COVID-19 year, he kicked 42 goals in 11 games for Tongala’s Under-14 team in the Murray league and won its best and fairest award.
He also finished equal third in the league voting.
Norman played 16 games as the Kyabram Under-16 team progressed to the second round of the finals last year.
And the early signs are promising in 2023, not only earning praise from Bendigo Pioneers Coates Talent League team coach Danny O’Bree, but also among the Under-18 team’s best against Echuca in round two of the GVL season.
He was part of the team’s thrilling round-three win, by five points, against the highly rated Shepparton on Saturday at GV Creamery Oval.
Norman said he had always wanted to do a trade and, after asking Geoff Howard about a possible future in the industry, was given the green light.
He has a good example to follow in regard to qualifying for a bottom-age spot on the Pioneers list, Tongala star Harley Reid did it last year and his Kyabram teammate Nick Jephson is a bottom-age player with the Pioneers Coates Talent League team this season.
He has similar traits to his father, who played with Stanhope, Merrigum, Murchison and Kyabram in his career, a midfielder that goes forward and loves to kick a goal.
He will be hoping to avoid the same fate as his mid-40s father, who only last year had a knee replacement.
Level headed: Last month the teenage football star started a building apprenticeship with Kyabram’s Howcon Homes. He is hoping for success on two fronts during 2023 as he combines work with his Under-18 season at Kyabram Football Netball Club.
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