All eyes will be on Redlegs Stadium this Saturday afternoon as Longwood welcomes Geelong legend Cameron Mooney to its senior side for its round 14 clash with Violet Town.
Part of Carlton and United Breweries’ (CUB) ‘Carlton Draft’ promotion, Longwood was one of eight clubs in regional Victoria selected to host an AFL legend for a one-off game.
The list of participants also included esteemed names such as Eddie Betts, Nathan Jones, Dale Thomas, Jarryd Roughead and Shaun Burgoyne, with the clubs taking part in a draft to determine which player they would end up with.
Given pick three, Longwood selected Mooney, who over his 221-game career with North Melbourne and Geelong played in three premierships and claimed All-Australian honours in 2007.
It was a major coup for the Redlegs both on and off the field and Longwood president Ricki Shiner said he could not wait to welcome the man colloquially known as the ‘big hairy cat’ to the club.
“Not too often do we get a former AFL player down at Longwood, especially one of Cameron Mooney’s quality, so we are very pumped for Saturday,” Shiner said.
“It is just great exposure for our club and that’s the most important thing, it’s getting different people interested in our story and coming in to have a look at our club for the day and [find out] what we are all about.
“A lot of people get wrapped up in senior results and don’t look at how the club is actually going, so this is a way to get people in and they might take away a different view of how Longwood operates.”
Mooney was renowned for his strong hands, physicality and presence around the sticks, as he spearheaded the Cats’ forward line through its dynasty in the late 2000s.
Shiner said those were all traits he hoped to see on Saturday as Mooney dons the Redlegs jumper.
“He said to me it’ll either be five goals or five weeks,” Shiner said.
“All jokes aside, hopefully he gets a few kicks and boots us a couple of goals to help bring the score into being competitive.
“It’ll be great for him to give the crowd something to watch, but more importantly it’ll be great for the young blokes in our team to learn off a guy like ‘Moons’.”
But it is off the field where Mooney will have the biggest impact, with hundreds of people expected to flock to Redlegs Stadium to catch a glimpse of the Cats legend.
Given this fantastic opportunity, Shiner said the club would be looking to take full advantage with a number of exciting events planned.
“We’ve got the president’s luncheon which starts at 12pm when Moons arrives, so he’ll speak at that along with (former Hawthorn player) Ben Dixon, who will also be coming up,” he said.
“During the game, Carlton Draught will be running a few bars and giving out merchandise to the supporters and we’ll have our past players day going as well.
“And then after the game Fox Footy will run a Q&A and there will be opportunities for people to have things signed and there’ll be auctioned items going up as well.
“The evening will then finish with our reverse raffle, which will be kicking on well into the night.”
Set to be arguably the biggest day in the Longwood Football Netball Club’s recent history, Shiner said the benefits would be tremendous as it continued its on-field rebuild.
“The day is going to be huge for us,” Shiner said.
“Looking at what other clubs that have had the Carlton Draft have done, they have been working around three times more than their regular capacity.
“It will be pretty much like hosting a final and we hope to welcome as many people from around the region as we can.”