Ranking the top AFL Cairns footballers
Ahead of the 2020 AFL Cairns season, the Cairns Post have put their neck on the line to select the best 20 players in the competition. Find out who made the list of the best footballers in FNQ.
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Ahead of the 2020 AFL Cairns season, Cairns Post AFL writer Jordan Gerrans has put his neck on the line to select the best 20 players in the competition.
The league has lost a handful of quality players over the summer while all clubs have been busy recruiting, with a few former AFL-listed players on their way north.
Today we can reveal the first 10 of the countdown, with the top 10 of the league to be in Wednesday’s Cairns Post, ahead of the competition’s restart this coming Saturday.
20. Wes Glass (defender) – Cairns Saints
The versatile defender just wins flags for fun, he has a stack of them from South Australia and added more to the collection up at Port Douglas over the last few years.
He makes the big leap into coaching, while still playing, in season 2020 at Griffiths Park.
Glass has been the wrong side of 30 for a little while now but he still finds a way to influence the contest in a big way and did so on grand final day last season.
Saints already have a solid defence and the playing-coach just adds to that.
19. Miles Bridgland (utility) – Port Douglas
Only a teenager and new to the competition, Bridgland has big wraps from those in the know up at Port Douglas.
He has been involved in the GWS Giants academy over the last few years and will bring that professionalism and approach to AFL Cairns.
Also, played some NEAFL footy for the Giants.
Has been know to hitchhike around Port Douglas, as well.
18. Anthony Stewart (utility) – North Cairns
“Stewy” must be the loyalest bloke in FNQ.
The North Cairns co-captain has stuck with the battling club through all the hard times over the last few years and hopefully that will be rewarded with some success over the next few seasons.
The Tigers’ reigning best-and-fairest winner is nursing a shoulder injury and may miss the first few weeks of 2020.
He can play anywhere as well, which new coach Ronnie Burns will love about him.
17. Aaron Davey (midfielder) — Cairns City Lions
Flash is 37 these days but you would not know it.
Excellent user of the ball on both sides of his body.
The Melbourne champ has turned around the Lions’ fortunes on and off the field.
The numbers down at Holloways Beach are huge and while there is many others helping behind the scenes, Davey is the driving force of Lions’ re-emergence.
16. Josh Mawson (midfielder) – Port Douglas
The NEAFL’s loss is our competitions’s gain.
Josh Mawson, after playing in a premiership as a teenager last year, was set for a crack with Aspley in the NEAFL, before the second-tier competition was shut down earlier this year.
The hard-running goal-kicker is back in Port and will be better again in 2020.
He finished third in the Crocs best and fairest count last year as well as winning the Troy Clarke Rising Star for the entire competition.
15. Ezekiel Frank (forward) — Manunda Hawks
The Hawks’ key position player had an up and down 2019 season but when he is on, there is not many better than him in FNQ.
Frank started really quiet last campaign but got going through the middle and later parts of the season, pushing his club towards a finals berth, eventually advancing in the first week.
Big “Izzy” will need a strong 2020 after all the quality players Manunda have lost over the summer.
14. Ben Speight (midfielder) – Cairns City Lions
The 30-year-old played 10 games at the top level for North Melbourne, kicking seven goals, between 2010-2013.
He has played in the Ballarat Football League and the Ovens & Murray Football League over the last few years, which are two of the stronger competitions in country Victoria.
Speight has spoken to AFL Cairns clubs in recent years and looks set to be a Lion in 2020 with a clearance approved to Holloways Beach.
13. Chris Novy (midfielder) – Cairns Saints
The smooth mover is now at his third club in three seasons, starting at North Cairns, under Iaon Drake, stopping over at Manunda for 2019, and will now head to Saints under new playing-coach Wes Glass when the AFL Cairns competition starts.
The Tasmanian was an assistant coach to the respected Marc Harbrow at the Hawks last season and also claimed Manunda’s best and fairest trophy.
He will take up an assistant coach role at Saints in 2020, as well as coaching the club’s women’s team.
Novy can play in all three areas of the ground and is one of the more damaging players by foot in the competition.
12. Ben Johnson (forward) – Port Douglas
I do not think we saw the best of “Big Johno” in 2019.
Johnson was rookie-selected by the Geelong Cats at the end of 2009 as a 22-year-old and returned to his junior club Bell Park once his AFL stint was over.
The imposing big man had not played proper footy for almost two years before his stint with the Crocs in 2019, in which he was still very influential in their premiership.
With another summer under his belt in Port and a second crack in the local competition, Johnson may be ready for a huge season.
11. Corey Flint (midfielder) — Manunda Hawks
The flying mullet for the Manunda Hawks seems to get better every year.
He kicks goals, takes high marks and runs all day.
Flint has become a regular in the Cairns Post Team of the Year.
Has a top five finish in the Crathern Medal under his belt.
Flint finished second in the club’s best and fairest count to Chris Novy last season.
Like Frank, with a few of his quality teammates gone, Flint will be asked to carry a larger load in 2020.
Did he get it right or is someone missing? Send an email to jordan.gerrans@news.com.au
Originally published as Ranking the top AFL Cairns footballers