Robbie Gray and Travis Boak held a free football clinic for those affected by the bushfires in East Gippsland.

PORT ADELAIDE stars Robbie Gray and Travis Boak were the talk of East Gippsland on the weekend after running a free football clinic for the community following devastating bushfires in the area.

Around 200 kids from the region took the chance to meet their heroes, grab their autographs and have a kick and catch with them.

Paynesville Football Club senior coach Adam Easton says he was grateful that Gray, Boak and Western Bulldogs midfielder Marcus Bontempelli were able to donate their time to help put a smile on the kids’ faces.

“It’s obviously been a difficult time for our area,” Easton told portadelaidefc.com.au.

“It meant so much to the community for the boys to come out and I know the day will have a lasting memory on everyone who attended.

“We would have had more than 500 people from the area come on Saturday, with more that 200 kids involved in the clinic.”

Easton was blown away with the generosity from the three stars of the competition.

“When Robbie said he was going to put on a clinic for the kids, we expected it to be for about an hour,” he said.

“The clinic itself went for about an hour, followed by another couple of hours of signing and a Q&A.

“The kids look up to their heroes and see them all enjoying themselves during this tough time was so pleasing.”

Port Adelaide senior assistant coach Michael Voss said it was absolutely brilliant for two senior leaders of the club to take time out of their busy schedules to give back to a community in need.

“They’ve been through a lot in that area, and obviously have a lot of people in Australia rallying around them,” Voss said on Monday afternoon.

“To be able to have a couple of players that have gone down there, they can think about something other than what’s going on in their lives right now.

“They can think about footy and I think that’s what footy does best, is they rally around each other.

“Those boys doing what they did is just a real credit to them, and we are so lucky to have them as part of our club.”

The East Gippsland bushfires are a topic that is close to Voss on a personal level, with the senior assistant coach spending his childhood in the area.

“It’s where I’m from. My old homeland in East Gippsland, and my area has had fires rip right through it,” he said.

“When you’ve got your cousins, uncles and aunties with fire on the doorstep or their surrounded in darkness with embers flying around is very scary.

“It has absolutely devastated the area.”

Voss encouraged everyone to do what they could to help those communities affected by the bushfires around Australia.

“Whatever we can do to try and make that a little bit better, then I encourage people to do what they can and give what they can.

“It’s really hard sitting here to understand the total scale of what it looks like right now, but there are townships which have been affected enormously.

“They are just going to need some help to find their feet again.”