Herald Sun | THE tiny town of Nathalia — population 1902 — turned out in force to welcome the Herald Sun Foxtel Full-On Footy Tour yesterday.
Hundreds of children descended on the club’s home turf at Nathalia Showgrounds for an afternoon footy festival — complete with ferris wheel, jumping castle, footy clinics and more — before a moonlight movie screening after dark on the giant Foxtel truck.
Meanwhile parents and hundreds of adult footy fans packed the club rooms, where it was standing room only, to hear from the Herald Sun’s Glenn McFarlane and Lauren Wood, and Fox Footy’s Brian Lake and David King.
Located 230km from Melbourne, Nathalia FNC plays in the Murray Valley Football League and is the birthplace of former Richmond legend Francis Bourke. The mighty Purps are big on premierships, having won 6 in the past 12 years, including four in a row between 2005 and 2008.
And yesterday they demonstrated they know how to translate on-field success off the field as well.
Club president Steve Brown said the organising committee couldn’t believe its luck when Nathalia won the right to stage the event, and they swiftly jumped into action to build on the opportunity — securing additional local sponsors, trucking in extra rides and activities for kids, and engaging other local community groups to fundraise at the event.
While fundraising wasn’t their sole focus, preferring to use the opportunity to galvanise and celebrate the club and community ahead of the season, he was thrilled that the club should pocket well over $10,000 from the event.
Attendee Bussy Davies, a Herald Sun reader from Numurkah, said he’d been to countless sports nights over the years, but crowned this event the best ever.
“I think this is the best night I’ve been to,” he said.
“The speakers have been fantastic and it was very well organised. What was so good about it was that they were so honest. It was just straight upfront, they told you what it was, and that was it. I really enjoyed it, and they were very funny too. They looked like they were very relaxed and it made everyone else feel really good.”
David King said the way the town had embraced the event was palpable.
“We knew exactly where we were going when we pulled into the town, signs everywhere, you can feel Nathalia up and about because there’s something going on, Herald Sun and Fox Footy tour, it’s obviously embraced the whole place — I mean this is packed, kids everywhere, it’s fantastic,” he said.
