Yarrawonga co-coach says town will benefit from Fev’s return to OMFL

YARRAWONGA co-coach Chris Kennedy has more than one reason for hoping Brendan Fevola will be returning to the Ovens and Murray league for its Easter Sunday clash.

Fev’s appearance a boost

YARRAWONGA co-coach Chris Kennedy has more than one reason for hoping Brendan Fevola will be returning to the Ovens and Murray league for its Easter Sunday clash.

Fevola, who played for the Pigeons for four seasons and won two premierships, is fresh out of the jungle after winning the television reality series I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here on Sunday.

The Border Mail reported that Fevola said he planned to play in Yarrawonga’s season opener against Wangaratta Rovers next Sunday.

Brendan Fevola

Kennedy said he and co-coach Drew Barnes would support Fevola playing the Easter match because they knew he would “probably bring another 2000-3000 people through the gate”.

He said it would be an added attraction for the town, located on the Victorian-NSW border and Lake Mulwala, which was suffering the impacts of blue green algae outbreak.

“It’s a good opportunity for our club to, for one, give him a farewell game, but for us there is a lot of people up here for Easter and we’re getting hurt a bit of the blue green algae at the moment in the tourism trade,” Kennedy said.

“It might just be something interesting for all the tourists that are up here to come and watch.

“There’s a lot of positives if he does play because the algae is hurting the accommodation people a bit at the moment.”

Kennedy said across the Labour Day long weekend Yarrawonga had “that many cancellations and for a long weekend it’s pretty quiet”.

“We’d like to think people might be more interested in coming if they can watch a game of footy with Fev playing,” Kennedy said.

“We think there is a lot of benefits of him being up here, and playing footy when people mightn’t be able to use the lake.”

Yarrawonga president Andrew Mott said he spoke to Fevola prior to Christmas about playing the Easter match and hoped to give the former AFL spearhead a farewell match as Fevola’s last game for the Pigeons was away from home.

But he did not want to confirm the appearance until he had spoken to Fevola, which he had not done for the past few months, and was mindful of what Fevola’s time commitments might be.

Fevola committed to play with Deer Park in the Western Region league this season, but requested a clearance to Northern Tasmanian Football Association side Perth, which kicks off its season on Saturday (the clearance was denied).

He is also billed to play a one-off for Frankston against Pearcedale in the Nepean league on Good Friday.

Deer Park’s season does not start until April 9.