Thousands of fans flocked to Reid Oval for the state government-backed event to take part in activities and meet star players, including Essendon midfielder Zach Merrett. AFL Victoria Western District regional manager Lachy Patterson anticipated up to 3000 people attended the festival, which was open to the public from 10am.

“We had 500 footys to give away and they were gone by 10.10am,” he said.

Warrnambool and Bendigo were picked to host what is expected to be a rotating event.

“Given the success of this though, I think we’d be silly not to be talking about hosting something similar, probably in a smaller capacity, obviously without the financial support of the government,” Patterson said.

“But with the amount of people here today, I would suggest there would be a lot of commercial partners who would want to chat about doing something.”