Chance to nominate club icons

By Paul Pickering
THERE’S one at every country footy club, the local legend whose face and name are synonymous with the club itself.
It might be a veteran spearhead with hands like buckets and a beer belly that belies his supreme talent.
It could be a football mum who has worked in the canteen for as long as anyone can remember.
Or perhaps it’s an up-and-coming junior player who is destined for AFL glory.
These characters have always been the lifeblood of country football clubs, but only now is their true worth about to be realised.
The 2007 Telstra Country Footy Legend competition gives every club in the Victorian Country Football League (VCFL) the opportunity to nominate one club icon to represent it – with $5000 going to the winning club.
Club secretaries from the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League can each submit one nomination online up until 5pm on Monday, 13 August.
A shortlist of nominees will then be whittled down by online voters, before the ultimate legend is announced at the VCFL Premiers Dinner on 13 October.
VCFL east-area manager Shaun Connell said the search was about recognising people who live, love and breathe country footy.
“Country footy is bigger than the players, we’re talking about the dads who tirelessly drive their kids to practice and training season after season, the mums who have never missed a match and the grandmas who have cooked more fundraising snags on the barbecue than they care to remember.”
Nomination forms and further information is available at www.supportthelegend.com.au.