Sport

Shepparton United, Violet Town stars named in AFL Legends game

By Callum Farquhar

Aug 19, 2026

Michael Barlow secures it for the Demons. Photo by BrucePoveyPhotos.com 2022

From regional fields to the pristine sheltered turf of Marvel Stadium.

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A trio of Goulburn Valley football stars are set to lace up the boots, but this time they won’t be gritting their teeth and tussling for a congested football in muddy country terrain.

Shepparton United’s Michael Barlow and Violet Town’s Will and JD Hayes have been named to feature for Victoria and the All Stars in the Four’N Twenty Legends Game for Prostate Cancer.

Barlow, a 141-game AFL player for Fremantle and Gold Coast accumulated 50 Brownlow votes in his career and is now a development coach at North Melbourne.

He has played four games with the Demons in the Goulburn Valley League this season.

Meanwhile the Hayes brothers played for Violet Town in the Kyabram District League this season, appearing for six and five senior games each respectively.

Will is a former AFL footballer, albeit playing just the 11 games with the Western Bulldogs and two with Carlton, but has since become successful alongside JD in the racing industry, training horses under the Lindsay Park Racing stable.

Barlow will represent Victoria, while both Will and JD Hayes will represent the All Stars in the light-hearted charity match, the spectacle hauling together over 31,000 spectators and raising over $1,000,000 for the Australian Prostate Centre in 2025.

The Legends Game is scheduled for Thursday, August 27. The first ball-up is at 7.30pm.