About 30 children from the Bulldogs Community Children’s Centre were this afternoon treated to a visit from Woofer, the Western Bulldogs mascot, as part of a Jackson’s Footy story hour.

Dwayne Russell - AFL commentator, 3AW’s Sports Today host and the author of Jackson’s Footy - visited the Whitten Oval complex to read his new footy picture book to the children.

Proudly wearing their Western Bulldogs 2010 membership hats, the children listened to the story about a young boy, Jackson, who loves his footy so much he sleeps with it at night.

The children had the opportunity to have their photo taken with Russell and Woofer, and they even managed to get in a few high-fives with the life-size bulldog. Two lucky winners took away a copy of Jackson’s Footy for their efforts in a colouring competition.

Russell, a father of two, released Jackson’s Footy in March this year after acknowledging a gap in the market for children’s footy picture books.

“I wanted to write a book which encouraged parents to read with their children, and I thought what better way to do this than with a book about footy!” he said.

Jackson’s Footy is the perfect book for little footy fans to read with their mums and dads. It is available now at all good bookstores and AFL stores.

To arrange a reading of Jackson's Footy at your school or sporting club please contact Karla Bunney from Slattery Media on (03) 9627 2600.