Herald Sun | FOX Footy commentator Anthony Hudson has returned to his childhood holiday hotspot — Traralgon — to help host the Herald Sun Foxtel Full-On Footy Tour.
With fellow panellists Mick Warner and David Parkin, the trio regaled the audience of more than 150 locals with tales from behind the scenes in AFL on Wednesday night.
With the Herald Sun’s Scott Gullan as MC, the spotlight turned to Parkin when asked to name the most difficult players he’d ever coached. Warner gave an insider’s view about his coverage of the Essendon drugs scandal which — by his own reckoning — had kept him busy so far for four years and one month.
Hudson’s impersonation of former 3AW colleague and caller Rex Hunt had the crowd in stitches.
Earlier, eager school children converged on the local oval to participate in an afternoon of fun-filled footy activities.
Donning their favourite team’s guernsey, the kids took speccies, dodged and weaved and played kick to kick as hundreds of mini Sherrins were handed out.
Club president Andrew Livingstone said the opportunity to host the event had been a boon for the club and the region.
“It’s really exciting for our club to be one of seven clubs around the state to be fortunate enough to have the tour here; we’re rapt,” he said.
He said identifying a local legend to nominate and honour had been an easy task.
Leah Quenault was celebrated for decades of service as a trainer and volunteer in local footy dating back to 1981.
“It’s fantastic,” she said. “It puts Traralgon, puts the area, on the map and in a positive way to say these people are doing OK down here.
It’s great that the Herald Sun, the tour, has come here.”
Parkin said seeing the kids enjoying the activities made it all worthwhile.
“To see the kids jump into it the way they have since I’ve been here — the handing out of the Sherrin footys and to see the kids racing for those when they came out of the barrow — I thought, how good is this?
“We sometimes forget. We think the hub of football happens to be down the road in the capital city but the hub of football for most of these regions and cities like Traralgon is in fact the Football Netball Club.
“And when you come and see the hundreds and hundreds of kids we’ve got here enjoying it — we need to imprint it, we need to be ambassadors for that when we go back, to remind people that they’re not the only part of the football family, that the football family, and netball too, is spread so strongly throughout rural (and) regional Victoria.
“I’m very proud and very pleased to be at this venue tonight.”
