Strikers-Cyclones merge moniker pinched by a rival

JCU Strikers’ push to become the eighth premier club has hit a hurdle after a surprise strike by a high-ranking official at a rival football club.

JCU Strikers’ push to become the eighth premier club has hit a hurdle after a surprise strike by a high-ranking official at a rival football club.

The Strikers won an appeal for their women’s Premier League and reserves teams to be allowed to stay in the FNQ Football competitions this year, and have been handed strict criteria to meet if they are to become the region’s next premier club.

A key part is that the Strikers merge with Redlynch Cyclones to form a new entity, outlined in a business case as Cairns United, with both clubs to have signed the Memorandum of Understanding this month.

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The criteria was discussed at a meeting between Strikers officials, Football Queensland North general manager Declan Carnes and FQ North board chairman John Azpiri on Wednesday, but club officials were surprised to learn “Cairns United” had already been registered as a business - just 24 hours earlier.

Lions' Michaela Noremberczyk and Striker's Morgan Stanton. PICTURE: BRENDAN RADKE

An entity known as Yeki Pty Ltd registered four business names, including Cairns United, Cairns United FC and Cairns United Football Club, on Tuesday.

The director of Yeki Pty Ltd is understood to be an integral member of Leichhardt FC’s senior and junior clubs, the latter of which is based just a kilometre from JCU’s Calanna Park home ground.

That geography was a key component of the FQ North board’s initial decision to deny JCU Strikers’ proposal to be part of the Premier League in 2021, especially given Leichhardt Junior Football Club was awarded $900,000 in state government funding for significant upgrades.

A decade has passed since a group of people left Leichhardt to establish the Strikers, who were then known as Southern Cross, at a time football in Far North Queensland was split in two competitions.

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That club has evolved into JCU Strikers, a primarily junior club which has focused considerable time and money on the development of female footballers – to the point they have gone from Premier League easybeats to finalists in the past two seasons.

Football North Queensland general manager Declan Carnes. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

Despite the generation or a business case using the “Cairns United” name, Football Queensland North general manager Declan Carnes said whichever name the new entity wouldn’t matter.

“The name is irrelevant, the structure of how we grow the game in Cairns is more important to us, with the hiring of Michael Edwards and the upcoming Women’s World Cup,” Carnes said.

Strikers have committed to building a new clubhouse at Calanna Park, construction of which is expected to get under way imminently, which would serve as a training base for the new entity.

The new Strikers-Cyclones entity will have to commit to relocating the club as their home game base to the proposed Redlynch Sport & Recreational Parkland by 2025 or earlier.

Now, officials will need to brainstorm a new name and moniker for the entity as they work towards becoming the eighth premier club in FNQ.

Originally published as Strikers-Cyclones merge moniker pinched by a rival