Former AFL footballer Dane Swan (pictured right) will pull on the Saints guernsey and play Round 1 of the Mid-South East Football League season for Nangwarry Football Club against Mount Burr.

The Collingwood premiership player and Brownlow Medallist will hit Nangwarry’s home turf on April 15.

Event coordinator Mick ‘Chappo’ Chaplin believed the major club fundraiser would be great for the Nangwarry community and would attract people from far and wide.

“I am super excited, I think it is going to be great for Nangwarry, great for Mid-South Eastern football and netball and great for the region,” Chaplin said.

“I feel like outside of AFL I think everyone can appreciate Dane and who he is, and I just feel like there is no other player who can draw a bigger crowd and or is as well-known as Dane Swan is.

“Everyone admires the laid-back larrikin that he is.

“It is going to be kicking off the season in absolute style.”

Nangwarry Football Club senior coach Shane Raymond said to bring an AFL player of such a high-calibre to Nangwarry was huge for both the football club and township.

“After everything that Nangwarry has been through over the past few years it is around creating a bit of excitement, continuing to move forward positively, creating an atmosphere and a major game for our club and community,” Raymond said.

“We are not only excited to have Dane Swan here from a club perspective, but Dane Swan for what he brings to the game and all his knowledge and experience that he can share amongst our young playing group is what excites me.

“The feeling amongst the playing group, the boys are buzzing and the fact that it is the first game of the year they just cannot wait, everybody is doing everything they possibly can to play that first game.

“For me to address the playing group with Dane Swan being a part of that playing group it is obviously a unique and very exciting experience for me.”

Raymond said Swan was a major drawcard and a highly credential footballer who was one of the largest identities to play the game.

“It is going to be quite a memorable moment seeing Dane Swan pull on a Nangwarry football guernsey, running out with our boys onto the Nangwarry football field,” he said.

“Me being a very loyal Essendon supporter, nothing will give me more satisfaction than starting Dane Swan on the bench.”