AFL LEGEND Dustin Fletcher paid a visit to the Ararat Football Netball Club to help them celebrate their season launch Thursday night.
The club kicked off the 2019 season in style with a dinner function at Alexandra Oval, and Fletcher delivered a skills clinic to the juniors and seniors.
Club president Jamie Toner said the night was "a great all-round club event."
"The junior footballers got to spend time with an AFL legend, who spoke beautifully to them about football and respect and doing the right thing," he said.
Fletcher offered some advice to the juniors about doing the right thing by friends and family.
"It was a whole conversation with the Under-14s about 'don't worry about making this your life, you don't have to be the best but don't sit back on your heels and think it's all down now and this is as good as I'll get - put your best in and you'll learn from that'," Toner said.
"Then with the seniors, he was more observing and having general chit-chat with the players."
Toner said that it was the first launch event in which the club had put emphasis on community involvement.
"There were about 80 involved," he said.
"It's about opening the club up more to the community and giving them an option of somewhere to attend socially, coming down to a good family environment, and also exposing the Ararat Football Club to the Ararat community as an accepting and embracing sort of club.
"Mouse from Mouse Productions did an awesome job arranging and getting everything up and going for the evening."
The first game of the season will take place on April 13 against Warracknabeal at Alexandra Oval.
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