Crib Point players join Port Douglas Crocs in 2020 AFL Cairns season
Footy season cancelled? Not for five Mornington Peninsula football players. They are getting ready to pull on the boots in one of this year’s last remaining league seasons — in far north Queensland. Here’s how they made it happen.
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Sunny days are ahead for five Crib Point footballers, who have driven 3000km to play in one of the last remaining football league seasons — in Port Douglas.
With the MPNFL season off for 2020, Harry Dekleuver, Jarrod Fisk, Liam O’Connor, Nick Rutherford, Ethan Smith and Joel Wisken jumped at the chance to head off on a football adventure to Far North Queensland.
They answered an ad on the Port Douglas Crocs AFL Club’s Facebook page urging players from southern states to “seriously consider a northern escape from the winter’’ and enjoy 25 degree winter days and 18 degree nights while keeping fit.
And so, the five Cribby players jumped in two cars and headed north, and after a five-day trek they arrived in sunny Port Douglas last Thursday.
There they went straight to a resort and into isolation for two weeks.
Once that’s complete, they will lace up the boots and hit the ground running to try and help the Crocs win a fifth straight premiership.
The five are hoping to pick up employment while up there.
Port Douglas coach Brad Cooper is looking forward to welcoming the Crib Point boys and seeing what they can do on the footy field.
“They will thicken our list,’’ he said.
“Footy up here is a little bit different. It’s open. The weather conditions are like pre-season down there. It’s dry, and they are big grounds…’’
The five are all Crib Point firsts players, with Smith the Magpies vice-captain and Fisk their ruckman.
“They go with our blessing,’’ a Cribby official said.
Port Douglas has won five of the past six AFL Cairns premierships, including four in a row.
Former Pines and Rosebud ruckman Paul Lewis is on the Crocs coaching panel.
The shortened 2020 season will be a seven-team competition, with clubs playing each other twice and a three-week finals series of a top-four. The grand final will be held on the last weekend in October.
Cooper says with most suburban leagues around Australian cancelled, there will be added interest in the AFL Cairns season.
“It’s a pretty good opportunity for our league to showcase itself, with a lot of the leagues not playing,’’ he said.
“And unless there is a vaccine found, what’s going to change from this season to next?
“We only have a salary cap of $60,000 so players have got to come for lifestyle choices, not financial. We sell the weather and where we are.’’
Port Douglas will lifestream its games this season.
“So anyone who wants to keep track of them can get on the Port Douglas Football Club Facebook page and you’ll be able to hit on the links and watch games,’’ Cooper said.
Port Douglas kicks off the season against Cairns City Lions, coached by former Melbourne star Aaron Davey, on Saturday.
Former Victorian Brad Sinclair is coaching the Manunda Hawks.
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