Essendon Football Club Player Appearance Guidelines

Essendon Football Club is committed to supporting the community and strives to 'give back' to our supporters who are so vital to the game. Part of this commitment to the community is facilitated through player appearances. As such, EFC aims to accommodate requests where possible. As you can imagine, we receive thousands of such requests and we regret that we cannot fulfil all of them.

Availability of players for appearance depends on the time of year requests is made. The majority of the player appearances are for community services, schools or hospital visits

Importantly, all appearances will be scheduled so as not to interfere with playing, training and other club commitments.

The club does not accept money for any player appearance.

Criteria:

The following criteria is applied when prioritising appearances requests:

• Direct interaction with children
• Clear role for player/s at the event
• No athletic/exercise programs that may present the risk of injury (eg. participate in social basketball match)
• Minimum of a four week period of notice before actual appearance date
• Essendon members will be give preferance in some cases.

The following requests will not be considered:

• If the function conflicts with training, competition or club event schedule
• If insufficient time has been allowed from receipt of request to anticipated appearance (ie. less than four weeks).
• During the players leave (October - November and mid season break).
• When the request has come from an individual and is of a personal nature eg. birthday party, wedding or barmitzvah.

Availability:

Player appearances are limited during the November to March as this is the pre-season period. In addition, no player appearance will be organised for the day prior to a match (AFL & VFL) or for the day after a match (AFL & VFL). The players also have two half days per week that is allocated as a day off (Tuesdays & Thursday) therefore no appearance will be scheduled during these afternoons.

Charitable causes please note:

Essendon Football Club has a special and formal partnership with the Starlight Children's Foundation. Although the Starlight Children's Foundation Victoria is the club's preferred charity, EFC does support other charity groups and causes.

Game Development requests please note:

To assist with the junior development of football, EFC footballers do attend a variety of clinics. Much of this work is done through the AFL and Football Victoria's Schools Program. For more details about the Schools Program visit www.footballvic.com.au/development/schools.

Lodging a request:

All requests must be in writing and must include:

• Organisation's / Company's name, postal address and logo.
• Contact person's name, position and business hours telephone number.
• Function details - location, date, time & description.
• Verification, if acting on behalf of charity group.

Letters can be sent to:
Player Appearance Request
P.O. Box 17 ESSENDON 3040

Faxes can be sent Attn: Player Appearance Request 9370 6804

Emails are only acceptable if they include company logo and/or come from organisation's direct email address. Email to generalenquiries@essendonfc.com.au

You can expect a response to your request within three weeks (December - January excluded).

The club holds the right to deny any appearance requests. Again, please remember that football is our number one priority.