‘It’s massive for the club’: Longwood picked for inaugural Carlton Draft

By Aydin Payne

Apr 5, 2022

Hedging his Betts: Longwood Football Netball Club president Ricki Shiner will be hopeful former AFL superstar Eddie Betts lands at the Redlegs in the coming Carlton Draft.

One of the forward pockets at the Longwood football ground could soon be renamed ‘Eddie’s pocket’ if former AFL star Eddie Betts dons the Redlegs jumper later this year.

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Longwood Football Netball Club was announced as one of eight clubs selected in ‘The Carlton Draft’, a campaign run by Carlton Draught.

The Carlton Draft sees eight former AFL legends recruited to play for a local Victorian club in an one-off game.

The inaugural initiative has been drummed up to help clubs at grassroots level back on their feet after two years of COVID-19 interrupted seasons.

Last week, Carlton Drought revealed the eight lucky clubs which had been selected to take part in this year’s draft.

There was more than 500 clubs that nominated, with the eight successful applicants selected in conjunction by Carlton Draught and the AFL on hardship grounds and in line with the campaign’s aim to support grassroots football.

Longwood president Ricki Shiner was over the moon for the Redlegs to be selected.

“It’s massive for the club. I was fist pumping in the car when the call came in to let me know,” he said.

“Straight away my mind was thinking of thousands of different ideas and how we should host and run the day.

“We’ve sent them a few days we’d like to have one of the players play on but there’s going to be a bumper crowd no matter what.”

Shiner, Longwood and collectively the rest of the Goulburn Valley will now turn their gaze to the draft on April 27 to find out which player.

The draft will be broadcast on FOX FOOTY and the draft order will be revealed on the night.

The former AFL champions who will join Betts in the draft are Jarryd Roughead, Brendon Goddard, Shaun Burgoyne, Nathan Jones, Dale Thomas, Alex Rance and Cam Mooney.

When asked which player had caught his eye the most, Shiner highlighted one former Adelaide and Carlton maestro who terrorised defenders inside forward 50.

“I’d put my hand up for all of them if I could,” Shiner said with a laugh.

“In all seriousness, you instantly look at Eddie (Betts). He’s a massive figure in the game, he’s universally loved and he’s not long out of playing as well.”

Shiner thanked all parties involved for allowing Longwood the chance to have football royalty represent the club.

“I want to thank Carlton Draught and the AFL for making this possible,” he said.

“To get access to guys like this is something that our club would never, ever be able to achieve.

“As great as it is though, we’ve been lucky enough to be selected due to where the club is at. We hope this can help us on our journey forward.

“The Redlegs faithful have worked tirelessly over the last eight years to help get our club back into a sustainable position after some very dark tough times.

“This is the kick on our loyal committee, players, sponsors and supporters deserve.”

The Kyabram District League is no stranger to having former AFL superstars strut their stuff, with Shane Crawford one of the recent legends to be involved at local level.