The former AFL star makes his debut for Yarrawonga today. Expect a big crowd and fireworks.  There have been plenty of high-profile recruiting coups in the Ovens and Murray Football League in the past. Before this year, perhaps none had been bigger than when champion onballer Bob Rose left Collingwood, before the 1956 season, to coach Wangaratta Rovers.

Rose was only 27 when he walked out on the Magpies after the Rovers offered him more money than he was earning in the VFL. He was still considered to be among Collingwood's top three players.

Rose's move to the Rovers was a huge story at the time. Big crowds flocked to see him run around in the north-east, and he didn't disappoint. He led the Rovers to their first Ovens and Murray league premiership in 1958, then another flag in 1960. On top of that, he twice won the competition's best-and-fairest, the Morris Medal.

But the pandemonium that surrounded Rose's defection more than 50 years ago might be put in the shade by Brendan Fevola's debut match for Yarrawonga this afternoon. More than 6000 people are expected to flock to Lonsdale Reserve in Mulwala (Yarrawonga's home ground is used for a tennis tournament each Easter) to see the former Carlton and Brisbane Lions sharp-shooter run around for the Pigeons against Lavington.

''I'm really looking forward to having a kick,'' Fevola said while driving to Yarrawonga on Thursday with his wife, Alex, and three children. ''Hopefully, a few people come along and it's a cracking day. The two sides played in the prelim last year, so it's obviously going to be a pretty good game of footy.''

The fact that Fevola, who won the Coleman Medal and was named at full-forward in the All-Australian team only 2½ years ago, is eligible to line up today remains a source of mirth throughout the Ovens and Murray league.

He was set to miss the match due to a suspension he incurred while playing in the VFL last year with the Casey Scorpions. The O&M's administrators initially tried to help. They approved a request from Yarrawonga to bring one of its games forward to the weekend before Easter, but a backlash from many of the Pigeons' rivals resulted in the decision being reversed.

In the end, it was some creative - and legal - accounting, involving the Glenrowan and Yarrawonga football clubs, that freed Fevola up to be part of today's game. Rather than being cleared straight to the Pigeons, the 31-year-old was instead transferred to Ovens and King league club Glenrowan because the Tigers' season started last weekend. Glenrowan's involvement was brokered by the Tigers' coach, John Gannon, who was once at star at Yarrawonga.

His suspension now erased, Fevola will remain on Glenrowan's books for 28 days - as per VCFL rules - and during that time he will be granted permits to play for Yarrawonga. ''It was a heck of a relief to get it sorted out,'' says Yarrawonga president Glenn Brear. ''There was a lot of tension, a lot of arguments and bickering. We were very lucky.''

Although satisfied the Pigeons played by the rules, the VCFL is now looking at closing the loophole. Regardless, Yarrawonga will be gripped by a Fevolution today. TV news crews are sure to be competing for spots on the fence with the thousands of fans, many of whom will be holidaymakers that flock to the river every Easter.

''You wouldn't believe how many people have shown an interest in coming to watch this game and buy membership tickets for the year,'' Brear said. ''Our version of the footy record up here is called the Critic, and I think the amount of Critics that we've ordered for the day is the equivalent to what the league orders for the grand final.

''The build-up to the game has been incredible. Our membership is through the roof compared to last year. It will give us a hell of an injection of finance to square up some debts that have occurred and set us up for the season.''

Yarrawonga's two senior coaches, Chris Kennedy (non-playing) and Drew Barnes (playing), are excited about having a bloke on their side who's played 204 AFL games and kicked 623 goals. But both are prepared to deal with the fallout if things don't go Fevola's way. ''The coaches know they'll have their hands full,'' Brear admits. ''You can't coach him; he'll do what he wants to do, and we know that. But we hope he kicks a power of goals and makes a lot of people happy when they come to watch him.''

Lavington, meanwhile, is trying not to focus on its star opponent. ''We've just got to stop the ball getting to him,'' said Panthers' first-year coach James Saker. ''There are probably two or three of our guys who know they might be in for the gig [playing at full-back on Fevola]. If our first choice doesn't work out then we've got a more than capable back-up plan.''

Fevola's arrival in Yarrawonga on Thursday enabled him to take part in the Pigeons' training session on Good Friday morning. Looking to the future, he is planning to line up in all of the club's home games, and is expected also to play an away match against Myrtleford. Such is Fevola's reputation for drawing a crowd, the Saints have offered to pay Fevola to play against them.

Yarrawonga has also succeeded in having its Sunday matches in rounds five and six, against Corowa-Rutherglen and Albury, transferred to Saturdays so they won't clash with his participation in Channel Seven's Dancing With The Stars.

''We believe it's all worthwhile because country football's been sick for a long time, and we think [it] can breathe some new life into it,'' says Brear, whose club has lost the past three senior grand finals, all of them to Albury. ''Often we're playing games and there's no one coming to watch. That's a pretty sad reflection on what country football's going through at the present time. We think the crowd will come [today], and then we've got another eight games at home that we think the crowd will come to as well.''

By Adam McNicol

Article first appeared The Sunday Age April 8, 2012