A LUCKY Saints family was given an experience they will never forget last week when they came face to face with No.1 draft pick Paddy McCartin.

The Hewitt’s, who were the winners of the club’s New Member Draft competition last year, were treated to a guided tour around Linen House Centre and lunch with their heroes.

Peter Hewitt, his wife Tracy and son Cooper renewed their membership in the stipulated time period last November, meaning they went into the draw to win the once in a lifetime opportunity.

“We arrived at 10.30 and watched the players training session. After touring the facilities we joined the players for lunch,” Peter Hewitt told SAINTS.com.au.

“Paddy showed us around the great facilities, which was impressive for a young bloke… We were also lucky enough to meet Nick Riewoldt.”

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The Hewitt’s recently became player sponsors and were happy to enjoy a meal with a variety of staff and players following training.

“We sat down with David Armitage – who we now sponsor - Richardson, Paddy and Danny Frawley for lunch and met the very impressive CEO Matt Finnis,” the lifelong St Kilda fan said.

“We followed our friends who sponsored Jarryn Geary and Sam Gilbert, and thought that sponsoring a player would be a good thing to do.

“We’ve decided to go a little bit further this year than we have in the past with the memberships, and the sponsorship and we’re also heading to New Zealand for the ANZAC day game this year… It’s always been something that we thought we’d like to do, but we couldn’t really afford to do it and now we can.”

Standing on the boundary line as the players were put through their paces ahead of the intra club, Hewitt was amazed at the pace and intricacies of training.

“It’s far advanced on what used to happen, certainly,” he said.

“They didn’t all do the same thing, everyone was doing individual work and the players kept moving around.”

While the 2015 season promises to be another season of development for the Saints, Tracy Hewitt said she was looking forward to watching the array of young players showcase their individual skills - regardless of team results. 

“I’m excited about improvement and it’s good to see that we’re going to improve with an increase in depth and an extra pre-season into the young blokes… It’s looking good,” she said.

As for Cooper (Aged 7), who was afforded a day off school to come and meet his heroes, he’s unlikely to forget the day for a very long time.

“Cooper’s at a good age that he’s starting to sit through a full game, and it just makes it easier to go along to the footy now,” Peter Hewitt said.

“Cooper will probably talk about it for days and he can keep the hat that Paddy signed for years to come.

“It has been very good experience, everyone has been very friendly.”