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Saints set to gain AFL star

BRANXHOLME-WALLACEDALE will have a new face in its senior team this year with the Saints selected as one of eight teams to host a former AFL footballer, as part of the Carlton Draft initiative.

Dale Thomas, Brendan Goddard, Jarryd Roughead, Eddie Betts, Cameron Mooney, Nathan Jones, Alex Rance and Shaun Burgoyne will suit up for eight community football clubs for one game with the Saints set to find out which player will pull on the Branxholme-Wallacedale guernsey later this month.

Club president, Damian Hogan said he was ecstatic to find out the club had made the cut.

“We received a phone call a couple of weeks ago to say we were shortlisted, and we had to keep it confidential,” he said.

“After last year with the season cut short, we can look at this for the subsidy for finals that we all missed out on.

“We will find out who we get when the draft goes live, they’re just telling us what we can do and can’t do at the moment.”

Ben Kamp has done the work behind the scenes, including competing the application with the draft scheduled for April 27.

Hogan said the club would be happy with any of the eight players but said one player stood out that would appeal on a cultural basis to the Saints.

“Personally, I think Nathan Jones, who has played for so long and very little success,” he said.

“From where they started from, to have someone like him talk to the boys about loyalty and why he chose to stay at Melbourne.

“But then also our club has had a long proud history of indigenous players, so to have someone like Eddie Betts, he is a weapon.”

The inclusion of a former AFL footballer is also expected to increase people through the gate and will plan an event to coincide with the day.

“It is an outlet for everyone on the weekend, and now that we have got this, I hope we really get supported well by the whole community,” he said.

“It is an opportunity that isn’t going to happen very often.

“It will also benefit the other team as well, running around alongside a former AFL footballer and learning things.”

The draft will be broadcast on Fox Footy on April 27.

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