These boots of Travis Varcoe have sizzled around the footy field for the Cats.
And after being painted by artist David Williams they are sure to turn heads at the Qantas Boots and Dreams Exhibition as it tours Australia.
Varcoe donated his boots to be painted when the AFL and Qantas launched the exhibition a couple of months ago.
It is displaying boots from some of the country’s top indigenous players such as Adam Goodes, Andrew McLeod and Buddy Franklin.
Varcoe’s size 10-and-a-half boots took a couple of weeks to be painted and they will be auctioned with the others at the end of the season to raise funds for the AFL Foundation’s indigenous programs.
“It was definitely an honour, the boots look fantastic, (the exhibition is) awesome,” Varcoe said.
“The AFL asked one indigenous player from each club and I was more than happy to be involved.
“The money is going to a good cause as well.”
While happy to talk about his boots it was Varcoe’s lightning hands that captured the attention on Saturday night in Sydney.
His bootlace pick-up at full pace and stroll into an open goal was a highlight of the evening for Cat fans and another example of the growing stature of Varcoe in the AFL.
After missing the first five games of the season with a thumb injury, he has gone from strength to strength in 2010.
“I thinking missing those first five games might mean I am feeling a little bit more fresh than the players who have played since the start of the season,” he said.
“I have really enjoyed this season so far and hopefully that continues for the rest of the year.”
As for the sublime pick-up, Varcoe credited Trent West for the grunt work of winning the ball in the pack and feeding it out to him.
“Full credit to Trent really, I was just lucky to be in the right place at that time,” he said.
“I didn’t think much about it, just saw it and picked it up and ran off.”
Besides the Qantas Boots and Dreams Exhibition, Varcoe and teammate Nathan Djerrkura have another program they are working on with mate Craig McGough.
“We are starting a program to run in Gove, where Nathan is from, just building role models and helping kids find out what they want to do and guide them in the right direction,” Varcoe said.
“We are going to take a few athletes to Gove in October, it is not just about sport though. It is about art and music as well because not everyone wants to get into sports so we though that was important.
“We included other sports too because footy excludes girls a bit.”
So far they have recruited sprinter Kyle Vander Kuyp, high jumper Tim Forsyth and are still in negotiations with other athletes and basketballers.
Geelong players will also be heading to Gove at the end of the season as part of the Cats regular trips to work with the community.
“This year will be our pilot program and, all going well, we can continue it on,” Varcoe said.