AN AFL legend will be coming out of retirement to play a match for Carngham-Linton Football Club this season.<\/p>\n
Part of a promotion by a brewing company, the Saints are one of six clubs to take part in the Carlton Draft that sees ex-AFL players join struggling clubs.<\/p>\n
The star-studded line-up includes 2003 Brownlow Medallist Nathan Buckley, four-time premiership winner Jordan Lewis, Adelaide and Melbourne best and fairest recipient Bernie Vince, premiership players Josh Kennedy and Kane Cornes, and Fremantle games record holder David Mundy.<\/p>\n
Greg Spratling, president of Carngham Linton Football Netball club said everyone is looking forward to the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put it out on the Carlton Draft website for nominations and there was a couple of people who nominated us,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone was saying yes go for it, there was no negativity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a few tough years, and as part of our journey to be successful on and off the ground we thought this would be a great chance to give our club publicity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Saints will not find out which of the six players will join the club until Wednesday, 26 April.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny of the six would be a quality person to come into the club for a day,\u201d Mr Spratling said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever we get will attract quite a crowd to our game and we want to utilise them to help promote the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlready it\u2019s provided a bit of excitement around the place and we want as many people as we can to see our club moving in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of the event, Mr Spratling said he is looking forward to getting younger players involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe juniors are the future of the club, so you want to make sure they\u2019re as important as anything that goes on that day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven without The Carlton Draft, we try and get our kids to stay around and watch the seniors with things like buddy days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year The Carlton Draft initiative saw Dale Thomas help the Nhill Tigers towards their first win in 1029 days with the club raising more than $12,000 in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the financial aspect, if we make money on the day, it will be given back to equipment that can help football and netball,\u201d Mr Spratling said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just a part of the journey moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Carlton Draft matches will commence in May but when the Carngham-Linton game will occur is yet to be announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AN AFL legend will be coming out of retirement to play a match for Carngham-Linton Football Club this season. Part of a promotion by a brewing company, the Saints are one of six clubs to take part in the Carlton Draft that sees ex-AFL players join struggling clubs. The star-studded line-up includes 2003 Brownlow Medallist […]<\/p>\n