The city's oldest football club is again preparing to host the only Anzac Day match in the region.

This is a tradition that has come and gone in varying forms - often depending on when the date lands - and for a long time the importance of this day was held in a shared Ballarat Swans and East Point match.

Now it is the Swans and Lake Wendouree.

Grade one pupil Eloise at Lucas primary, deep in the Swans territory, told The Courier it was important to remember the Australians who protected this country.

This is not a sentiment we should ever take lightly.

Football parlance has a tendency to become mixed in battle-like words that when you truly contemplate, these can feel off the mark and inappropriate.

What football-netball clubs are great at doing is helping to keep the legacy alive so we never forget the cost for those who have served and who continue to serve this country - just look to the emotions the annual Essendon-Collingwood Anzac Day fixture has built to, and the growing solemnity before Richmond and Melbourne on Anzac Day's eve.

Right near the Swans' Cuthberts Road oval is the city's largest commemorative arch in Australia, which begins the nation's longest Avenue of Honour, stretching 22 kilometres.

Ballarat Swans, with the Lakers, have a responsibility to show respect in marking a day that has become sacred-like in Australian culture.

Football netball clubs are far greater than the game they serve up.

Clubs are an important cog in strengthening community connections and pulling together in tough times.

Clubs also offer a rich, accessible educational space for its vast members to improve and better themselves across a range of social and cultural issues.

And do not forget, at the grassroots this work is primarily driven by passionate volunteers trying to make their club a better place.

In telling the Anzac story, it is important to realise that most men and women serving in WWI were the same age and younger than most men and women in football and netball action. Added to this were the ripple effects this had on the Ballarat community back home.

Ballarat's Avenue of Honour carries the names of 3801 WWI service personnel but, as Arch of Victory/Avenue of Honour president Garry Snowden makes clear, these numbers represent a person with a history and a life in this city.

While in commemorating such a sacrifice, for what had been touted to be the war that ends all wars, we know there are still many Australians, generations later, tied up in conflict and peace-keeping missions.

It should not be forgotten that one year ago, the number of Ballarat veterans and their families wanting to be heard in the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide was strong.

Being able to play and cheer football and netball in our community, in Australia, is something we should never take for granted.

Clubs play an important role in helping to remind us of this.

The Swans and Lakers might have the spotlight on Anzac Day but every club has a responsibility to go beyond the moments they will each have to reflect to respectfully, properly honour why we remember this Anzac round.