North Queensland pushes for 2020 AFL games and hub
The possibility of Cairns and Port Douglas hosting AFL games to complete the 2020 season has been addressed by league boss Gillon McLachlan after it was revealed more clubs could move to Queensland.
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Top level AFL games are on the cards for Cairns and Port Douglas as the Victorian footy season moves to Queensland.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan is considering the idea as well as clubs and their entourages being based in the Far North.
He confirmed Cairns was an option to host games and with his tongue planted in his cheek, even suggested Port Douglas as a location some of his staff would like to visit and complete the campaign.
Hundreds of players, teams and staff would set up camp in the state.
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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Wednesday morning said the AFL had approached her about moving more of its teams and players to Queensland.
Victorian clubs will now make Queensland home for the majority of the home-and-away season and will likely fly between Perth, Adelaide and other venues to play their games.
Mr McLachlan said clubs could stay in Brisbane or the Gold Coast and fly to other areas of the country, potentially limiting the number of games to be played in FNQ.
“The short answer is, yes, it is possible we will be playing in north Queensland, absolutely,” he said.
“Cairns, I have a lot of my management team that want to see a game in Port Douglas.
“It does not rule out us playing games in the Northern Territory and Tasmania, from Queensland.
“Under the right circumstances, we will fulfil the agreements with those states.
“Clubs and families will potentially be based in Queensland for the rest of the home-and-away season.”
Mr McLachlan’s comments around NT and Tasmania may be a blow to Cairns’ chances of hosting games.
As the AFL boss noted, the league had commitments to play games in those areas before the season started, whereas Cairns, Port Douglas and Townsville were not slated to host games in 2020 before coronavirus hit so hard in Victoria.
Local officials have started to call for games and training camps to be held in NQ.
Cairns MP Michael Healy will be pushing for games and teams coming to FNQ and says his government has been dealing with AFL Queensland and Cairns this week.
“The possibility of Cairns getting an AFL team, I support enormously, and the hub concept in Cairns makes total sense,” Mr Healy said.
“You could not think of a better destination as a hub, Cairns is ideal and I will be advocating for it.
“Hopefully we could get one or two teams.”
Advance Cairns executive chairman Nick Trompf said he thought the heartland of AFL outside the southeast of the state was in Cairns.
“We have an A-grade surface that is arguably as good as any others in the competition, bring it on we say,” Mr Trompf said.
Originally published as North Queensland pushes for 2020 AFL games and hub