By Parker McKenzie
Former Collingwood premiership winner and Brownlow Medallist Dane Swan will make a one-off appearance for The Basin Football Netball Club on 29 April.
Club President Alex Winters said having Swan play for the club was an opportunity to make some money and get some publicity for the team.
“It just sets you up for the future. The Clubs going pretty well financially, we don’t have drama with that, but you can never have enough funds because you don’t know what’s going to happen the next year,” he said.
“We’re excited to have him down and we look forward to as many people coming down and supporting the club, enjoying the day and we hope it’s a big thing for the community.”
Swan, who won the premiership with Collingwood in 2010 and the Brownlow Medal in 2011, played 258 AFL games and kicked 211 goals.
Swan isn’t the first former AFL star to appear for the Bears after Barry Hall pulled on the green and red jersey in 2017.
Winters said the club had around 3000 people down for Hall’s appearance.
“If you are in the premiership window, you probably don’t want to get any of the players offside by bringing in someone from outside the club for one game,” he said.
“We’re middle of the pack at the moment and a lot of our kids are young, we think they’d be able to learn a fair bit just by playing one game with Dane, so this is probably the right time to do it.”
Swan will appear against Templestowe at Batterham Reserve on Saturday 29 April.
Batterham Reserve is located at 10 Miller Road, The Basin.
Swan was contacted for comment.
