Geelong and Essendon will kick off the 2018 Powercor Country Festival at Central Reserve in Colac.

As part of the JLT Community Series, the Cats and the Bombers will travel to the regional centre of Colac, south-west of Melbourne for a pre-season hit out on Sunday 11^th March.

The clubs will celebrate the first phase of the 2018 Powercor Country Festival and take part in a number of community initiatives, before a blockbuster MCG game between the two sides in the home & away season.

Geelong CEO Brian Cook is looking forward to seeing the growth of the Powercor Country Festival as it heads into its third year.

“We are really pleased to be bringing the Powercor Country Festival to Colac,” Cook said.

“The Powercor Country Festival concept has developed immensely from it’s beginnings to where it is now, and as a club we look forward to continuing the program into 2018.

 “Colac is a football loving town, in 2017 we had over 300 Colac-based members sign up.  The region is a great supporter of us as a club and AFL football as a whole so we are excited to give back to them.”

Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell said the Club was excited to be playing in the Western region of Victoria.

“We are delighted to be playing our Powercor Country Festival pre-season game against Geelong in Colac,” Campbell said

“Over the past two seasons, we have visited Shepparton and Bendigo, with both Geelong and Essendon committed to using the power of football to recognise and celebrate the contribution of regional communities to our game and our way of life in this country.

“We would like to thank the AFL for supporting this important initiative once again and we look forward to taking the Powercor Country Festival to Colac next year.”