At the top of the guest list is Australian test cricket royalty, Mike Hussey, but the event is very much focused on injured Black, Dom Punch.

“We had Hussey booked for a [reunion] lunch with about 200 people in the club house,” event organiser Pete Hodgson said.

“Since we’ve made it a fundraiser for Dom, it’s blown out of all proportions.”

The event takes place Sunday week and is officially sold out despite the $1000-a-table ticket price.

Yet people continue to put their name on the reserve list hopeful they might even find a chair.

To cater for the crowd a cavernous 15 metre wide by 50 metre long marquee will sit on the field.

Hodgson said he had lost considerable sleep over the logistics. 

Especially when the event was intended to build funds for future 1877 ventures – a new twist on the old boys model.

“The committee was designed to lure back to the club, men and women, past players and administrators,” he said.

“But Hussey knows it’s for Dom now and it’s great to have his support.”

The event is expected to raise at least $100,000 to assist Punch who was hospitalised last month after a scrum collapse dislocated his C5 and C6 vertebrae.

The money will help with his immediate and ongoing medical costs when his prognosis is unclear.

“I’m quite proud that as an organisation we lead the way among sporting organisations with fundraisers for things like hospital beds and SIDS,” Blacks president Ben Emmett said.

“So it’s nice to see that when one of our own is in need that the community has rallied behind him.”