One town, one club.

Myrtleford Football Netball Club will be hosting a community day alongside the town’s junior football and netball clubs on Friday, 6 March, to officially launch the three seasons.

The senior football and netball players will lead their younger athletes in a series of fun skills drills and games at the oval and courts at McNamara Reserve, with the clubs throwing open their doors to the whole community.

The relaxed, family-friendly event is designed to bring the senior and junior players together, welcome new families, and celebrate everything that makes the Saints such a great community club.

The day is also a chance for junior footballers and netballers to register for their upcoming seasons.

The community day is the brainchild of MFNC committee member Jaime Ardern, who said the notion came about from a desire to bring the town together.

“For me growing up, my heroes were the senior footy players around Myrtleford instead of the AFL,” he said.

“As a community, you’ve got three generations or more attending the footy, so being around family and looking up to those guys, the idea came together.

“Why are we doing three or four separate events with the junior clubs?

“Why don’t we bring it all together and start doing something that’s more united, as a community?

“The idea of the community day is for kids who have never trained or are looking to become part of the football, the netball, all of a sudden see the senior players helping out, all getting involved and helping out.

“To me, that’s just going to inspire more people to play.”

It’s not just a run-around for footballers and netballers – the clubs are going all-out to create a fun, family-friendly atmosphere.

There will be food and drinks available, live music, merchandise and memberships available, as well as intra-club hit-outs for the seniors.

“It’s just about a heap of fun activities, games played together – we call it training but realistically it’d be a mix of skills and games for everyone to play,” Ardern said.

“After that, it’s food, drinks, some live music, and a bit of a family atmosphere for people.

“We’ll have the bar open, have a barbecue going.

“We want families down there, just to be among it all.”

Ardern said a strong link between the junior development clubs and the senior set-up was key for prolonged success for Myrtleford on the court and field.

“We’re never going to be able to compete with jobs and money compared to the big clubs in Albury and Wangaratta – what we can do is bring more through our juniors,” he said.

“If you look at any year that Myrtleford’s had success, if you look at all the years they’ve made the preliminary finals, the majority of the team is local players.

“The dips we have in success probably come from when there’s not talent coming through.

“For us to be a successful club, we have to foster kids who are under 12s all the way through, and we have to be united as one.”

The Myrtleford football and netball community day is on Friday, 6 March from 5.30pm at McNamara Reserve.