A selection of Brisbane Lions players will be ditching their football boots for cricket bats as they prepare to face the Mildura Settlers in a Twenty20 cricket match on the eve of the 2013 AFL Grand Final.

The Sunraysia Daily reported on Wednesday that Mitch Golby, Dayne Zorko, Pearce Hanley and Claye Beams will be part of a Lions XI that will take on the reigning SCA premiers in a ‘friendly’ exhibition match.

The cricket match will be held at Mildura Senior College on Friday 27 September.

The players’ love of the summer sport is no secret, with Golby even revealing on the latest episode of Pop Quiz on LIONS TV that if he wasn’t playing AFL, he would "love to be a cricketer".

Beams also has a strong cricketing background, having played at a high level as a junior, before eventually deciding to pursue an AFL career instead.

However, the players are expecting a tough hit-out against their Mildura opponents.

“There’s a fair few of us who like to have a hit, but with all our footy, we don’t often get a chance to play cricket,” Golby told Sunraysia Daily.

“There are about 10 of us going away, and we thought we would do something different so we’re going to jump on a houseboat.

“We wanted to organise a game with one of the local clubs, and Settlers was the first one that came up when we were looking for a club.

“I haven’t heard too much about the local team but I know they won the flag last year, so it’s going to be a tough game.”

Asked by Sunraysia Daily if his side would include mostly specialist batsmen or bowlers, Golby replied: “Fielders”.

“A couple of us go OK, so we’ll see what happens,” he said.

“A few of us played junior cricket, but I think Claye Beams played at a reasonably high level.

“There’s a couple of Irish boys in the team, too, so it should be funny.”

Story courtesy of Toby Prime at Sunraysia Daily.