The Palm Beach Currumbin Football Club may reconsider their place in the QAFL should the season start later than July

A Gold Coast sporting giant have discussed their 2020 QAFL plans.

PALM Beach Currumbin Australian Football Club president Anne Cornish has conceded the Lions may have to consider their place in the QAFL should the season start later than July this year.

THE COAST CLUB WHO WANT TO HOST ENTIRE 2020 QAFL SEASON

Cornish has been in regular contact with AFL Queensland during the league shutdown and clubs have been informed the season will likely commence on July 11, with each team to play each other once and the season to conclude by October.

QAFL semi-final between Palm Beach Currumbin and Surfers Paradise at Salk Oval. Photo of

But any later and the Lions may consider opting out due to the potential for conflicting schedules.

“If it went later than that and was a spring start in August or September, to be quite honest we don’t know if we’d take part,” she said.

“We share a ground with the cricket club who own the ground from October 1 onwards which would be an issue and also, the boys are pretty used to having that October through to February as their own off-season time to plan holidays and spend with family.”

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Like many clubs, Palm Beach Currumbin have lost a portion of revenue due to government regulations and the closure of their sports club.

But Cornish is confident the club will survive the shutdown and retain their position as a QAFL powerhouse.

“Our sponsors haven’t paid anything up until this point so if we get half a season, we might get half of that agreement,” she said.

“Even if we weren’t paying players and coaches, we’d still have to pay for the use of the ground and pay medical staff.”

AFLQ have been in contact with Cricket Queensland about the potential ground fixture clashes later this year, Cricket Gold Coast president Dean Johnson even flagging senior games may all be moved to northern parts of the city to cater for Aussie rules on southern venues.

But Cornish said it wasn’t the club’s preference to lose home games as those fixtures helped direct traffic to their sports club.

Palm Beach Currumbin Football club president Anne Cornish. Picture Glenn Hampson

“We won’t get that income if we give up home games because we need income desperately and the sports club is the best way to bring clientele in so it’s not really to our advantage to play away,” she said.

The sports club is expected to open again on July 10 which could perfectly coincide with the start of the QAFL season but Cornish said the ability to open the venue wouldn’t be a deciding factor in any decision to play again this year.

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Above all, Cornish said the 2018 QAFL premiers were ready to attack whatever was thrown at them as if it were a normal season.

“There’s a lot of rumours around that it isn’t a real season and who wins doesn’t matter but whether it’s eight or 16 games, it doesn’t matter to us,” she said.

“We’re not taking that attitude and we’re planning to go out and win because the season still exists, it will just be different.”