THE COUNTRY'S most talented draft hopefuls are in Florida for 10 days for a high-performance training camp with the NAB AFL Academy.

While on the tour, Victorian Josh Dunkley, who is eligible to join the Sydney Swans as a father-son prospect, will write a diary for AFL.com.au detailing the team's activities.

Every day Dunkley will also shine the spotlight on a teammate, including some lighter moments. This is the first of three diary updates.

DAY ONE
January 10
En route from Melbourne to Tampa

Our trip began on Friday, when the Victorian squad members came together in North Melbourne. We were briefed about the camp, and prepared for what was going to be a long journey the next day.

After a 5am wake-up we arrived at Melbourne Airport at 6am for the first of our four plane rides: to Sydney, followed by connecting flights to Los Angeles, then Atlanta and finally Tampa.

With some time to kill, we had a walk around Sydney Airport and happened to spot former Prime Minister Bob Hawke exchanging money. After seeing him pose for one photo, I thought 'Why not?' and asked as well. 

Unfortunately Bob thought one photo was enough and knocked me back.

I'd only been to New Zealand before, so comparing that four-hour flight to the 33-hour journey ahead of us was tough, but we managed to get through it without too much hassle (apart from a screaming baby in front of me, which made sleeping difficult).

The extra long trip was something of a blessing for Rhys Mathieson, who turned 18 on January 10 back home.

Because of the time zone changes, though, his celebrations extended beyond 40 hours and even included a shout-out from one of the Delta Airlines hostesses over the loud speaker.

By the time the team checked in to its accommodation in Tampa, everyone went straight to bed for some much-needed rest.

Before that, Charlie Curnow almost managed to blow the electricity at the hotel with a dodgy adapter, causing two rooms to be evacuated.

We're all very excited to head to the IMG Academy tomorrow, where we will be staying for the next week and training at some world-class facilities.

Spotlight on: Callum Mills. Cal's a great player and one of the leaders of the group, but having recently completed year 12, we all wondered about his education after one coffee order went wrong. On the way to Tampa, he ordered a cup and was pretty excited to try an American style, but didn't have enough money because he hadn't factored in the extra tax. He had to leave the shop and come over to ask for some spare change, much to his embarrassment.

Aidyn Johnson, Ryan Burton and Sam Weideman training in Florida. Picture: Lachlan Cunningham

DAY TWO
January 11
Tampa

Before the tour I had done some research on the IMG Academy to see the facilities that awaited us, but the images online didn't quite do the place justice upon our arrival. 

We checked in to the Academy and went for a tour of the grounds, which includes more than 30 tennis courts, 10 soccer fields, a golf course, a big gym and requires shuttle buses to move from one end of the place to the other.

At IMG they call the buses trams, but they're actually Kubota RTVs (I only know this because my mum and dad sell them back home).  

As well as the players and staff, there are 14 clubs represented on the tour by AFL recruiters, and we were introduced to them this morning.

Having spent last week training at Hawthorn and some time at the Sydney Swans late last year, I know a few of the recruiters and the tour will be a good chance to get to know them better.

Scott Clayton from Gold Coast spoke to us and said they see the trip as a valuable exercise in observing how we interact, behave and conduct ourselves, and I think we all understand that.

A lot of people have asked me about the Swans and whether I would like to go there as a father-son player if the opportunity comes up later in the year. 

At this point in time there's still so much water to flow under the bridge and so many things to work on, and I haven't really thought about it too much. 

Despite still being a little sore from the trip, we had a light training session late in the day that was good to blow out some cobwebs. 

In the Florida sun we worked in two groups on our kicking and another in crumbing off the pack and working the ball through traffic. Harley Balic highlighted his basketball background by showing some nice agility in this drill.

On the walk back from the touch session, Ben Crocker almost caused an international incident when he confused stepping to the left and right on the path.

With two cyclists approaching from behind the group, Ben stepped to the right, not knowing the cyclists would also go right. What happened next is pretty self-explanatory: a sore and bruised cyclist.

Spotlight on: Tom Cole. I was Tom's kicking partner at training and he was hitting them sweetly. He wasn't in the level one academy group last year but was selected for this year's squad and has fitted in seamlessly, with all the work he's put in clearly paying off. 

Academy coach Brad Johnson with Kade Stewart at a training session. Picture: Lachlan Cunningham 

DAY THREE
January 12
Tampa

It was no coincidence everyone had a bad sleep last night and it had nothing to do with jetlag.

We had seen in our itineraries that James Veale, our strength and conditioning coach, had planned for us a horror fitness session at the Academy, which consisted of a 3km time trial, a body weight circuit, game-specific running and hill runs, in that order.

Each part was about 12 minutes of work, and it was all hard. Dylan McDonald won the time trial, while Ben Crocker, Cal Mills and Tommy Cole were also strong performers in the run. It was the first 3km time trial I had ever done and I ran 10min 21sec, so I was pleased.

Over summer, Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury texted me when he was in Sale during Christmas break asking if I was up for some training with him, and of course I was never going to knock back that opportunity.

As I've played all my local footy in Sale, we're pretty close friends with the Pendlebury family and it was great to get some training in with him to prepare for this camp and the year to come.

All the preparation helped for this morning's session, as it was one of the toughest training days I've ever experienced.

By the time we got to the hills (which were man-made for the purpose of running up and down them) everyone was tired, but we had to push through it. It made finishing the session more satisfying.

In the afternoon the IMG staff joined us for a leadership session, which was interesting, and they took us through some approaches that American athletes take to pro scouts, before having an early night for some much-needed rest.

Spotlight on: Gach Nyuon. After having an interrupted pre-season, it was great to see Gach push himself to the limit with his running. By the hills he could have easily given up after losing much of his breakfast earlier, but he continued to bolt up and down right until the end. He earned heaps of respect from the team for doing it and I'm looking forward to playing with him again for Vic Country this year. 

The NAB AFL Academy's Mick Ablett addresses players during training. Picture: Lachlan Cunningham