The importance of a good signature

KICKING with your non-preferred foot, body positioning, tackling – they’re all skills you expect to improve when you’re drafted to an AFL club.

But not many teenage footballers realise that when they sign their name to a contract, one of the skills they’ll need to develop is actually just that: signing their name.

Second-year Hawk Marc Pittonet soon found out it was a pivotal part of being an AFL footballer.

“When I first came in to have my first signing session I didn’t actually have a signature until that day,” he told aflplayers.com.au.

“But one of the senior players grabbed me, pulled me aside and told me I needed one.

“As a result, I sat down with one of the senior players and worked on that. After that he wasn’t too pleased with it so I had to perfect another one by the next signing session.”

Each club has its own method of collecting players’ signatures – for items such as jumpers, footballs, shorts and caps to distribute for charity, corporate and community events throughout the year, plus official club merchandise.

Skipper Luke Hodge said most of the players added their jumper number alongside the signatures “because a lot of the boys have shocking signatures, so it’s just so that most of the people can identify whose signature’s who”.

Click here to head to aflplayers.com.au to watch the video and read the full story