Cairns, Townsville, aligned in future of football discussion
Two club summits were held in two days about 350km apart, but the priorities were aligned as Cairns and Townsville had the first opportunity to have a say in Football Queensland’s future.
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TWO club summits were held in two days about 350km apart, but the priorities were aligned as Cairns and Townsville had the first opportunity to have a say in Football Queensland’s future.
The consultation sessions come after the release of FQ’s Future of Football 2020+ paper, which outlined the challenges facing football and the need to reform the sport in the Sunshine State to allow for the World Game to truly thrive.
Football Queensland North general manager Declan Carnes was one of the few to have been at both sessions. He told the Cairns Post the discussions and the issues raised by members were similar at both events.
“The cost of representative football is massive, affordability in the juniors and what’s actually delivered,” Carnes said.
“The tyranny of distance a (to the southeast) and how we can do things better for our members in NQ — both sessions identified similar issues.”
How competitions are run and what they look like into the future will be a discussion point moving forward, with some support for the return of regionally-driven representative teams and the potential for the best clubs across Cairns, Townsville and Mackay to face off in a “Champions League” format.
Carnes, who has met with Cairns clubs multiple times since the expansion of NQF to include FNQ Football clubs, said he was happy with how members have recognised the need for change, but FQ has to lead the charge.
Originally published as Cairns, Townsville, aligned in future of football discussion