What a Fantastic Weekend for the Purples!

Our weekly club Thursday night dinner was particularly special and kicked off the weekend with a bang! We renamed it "Thursday Night Dinner for Kelly" and in Kelly Lundberg's memory we raised money for MND.  We served a club record of 231 meals, sold FIGHT MND socks, raffle tickets and baked goods. The clubhouse was packed to the rafters with so many people coming together to enjoy dinner. We know that Kelly would have loved it. We are pleased to tell our wider community that together we raised $4224 to go directly to the FIGHT MND organisation.  

On Saturday the club hosted 6 games of football, 8 games of netball, Knights Junior Football, a Net Set Go showcase, a Past Players Reunion on the Hill, awarded the KB's Legacy Cup and had Back Pocket films around the grounds checking out all the action.

Kyle Gemmill asked for the club's help to raise awareness for his charity "KB's Legacy, One Step at a Time". Everyone would remember last year Kyle's incredible Run4KB journey, where he raised awareness and money for research to fight cancer Ewing's Sarcoma by running 441 km's in 7 days. Well Kyle's back in Nathalia to continue that important work and on Saturday  Nathalia played against Tongala for the first ever KB's Legacy Cup. Every player wore a touch of yellow to raise awareness and Kyle presented "Best On" medals after games of Senior football and A Grade Netball. Kyle also provided a guest speaker to address the half time afternoon tea crowd.

At 12pm, many past players gathered on the hill under the marquee. The weather was perfect for the reunion and it was magnificent to see so many players that had come back to Nathalia for a day of catching up and enjoying the football and netball.  After the final siren of the women's football night game against Shep United, the crowd moved into the club house for dinner and awards.     

Al & Tim from Back Pocket Films visited the club from Thursday to Saturday.  Partnered with the AFL, they are producing a mini documentary to be released on the AFL's YouTube channel The AFL Play, called Our Field of Dreams - Nathalia. The guys visited many different locations around Nathalia, interviewed lots of locals and spent many hours filming over the weekend. We can't wait to see what they produce, especially after what was such an action packed weekend.  

The club canteen was open from daylight until after dark and we also served another 140 meals on Saturday night. The club was bursting at the seams with people all weekend. We want to thank all our volunteers who worked tirelessly to make a mammoth day of country football and netball run smoothly. We hope everyone put their feet up on Sunday!