Crocs banking on attitude ahead of top-of-the-table clash
The freedom to train might hand Port Douglas a minor advantage in its top-of-the-table clash with Cairns Saints on Saturday, but it will be attitude that separates the high-flying AFL Cairns clubs according to the Crocs’ five-time premiership coach.
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The freedom to train might hand Port Douglas a minor advantage in its top-of-the-table clash with Cairns Saints on Saturday, but it will be attitude that separates the high-flying AFL Cairns clubs according to the Crocs’ five-time premiership coach.
Port Douglas coach Brad Cooper said it wasn’t so much his side’s preparations that would give it an advantage against Saints, but rather the players’ attitude that would stand them apart.
AFL Cairns fixtures will return Saturday, following Wednesday’s announcement that Queensland government restrictions, including the suspension of community sports, would ease from 4pm on Friday.
The league had moved fixtures to Sunday and Monday nights due to the restrictions, but will now proceed with its round 18 fixtures on Saturday afternoon as originally scheduled.
Training for the six Cairns-based clubs had also been restricted since Sunday, August 8, with only 10 people allowed to train per group and no physical contact between participants.
However, with the Crocs based outside the impacted local government areas of Cairns and Yarrabah, they have been able to train as normal.
But Cooper said attitude was the most important ingredient for success, and the privilege of just being able to play footy had not been lost on the playing group.
“I’ve got a lot of mates and a lot of family that are locked up and would do anything to be outdoors at the moment,” Cooper said.
“We’ve been pretty fortunate up here, and you’ve only got to look at other parts of Australia at the moment – the east coast and down south – to see we’re in a really fortunate position.
“I think sometimes we lose focus because we have been so fortunate compared to what’s happening in other parts of Australia.”
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He said the fact the competition was still going ahead was the most important thing, and clubs had to make sacrifices in order for that to happen.
“If Port Douglas went into a solid lockdown and all of Cairns was still open for business, I’m pretty sure I’d understand what would have went on in regards to the competition and things like that,” he said.
“I understand the competition would be bigger than just us as a footy club and, if Port Douglas was a hot spot and was locked down, I wouldn’t expect the competition to say ‘we’re going to wait for you’.”
Cutters won’t dwell on fixture blow ahead of finals fight
The South Cairns Cutters should have woken up on Sunday morning with their AFL Cairns finals spot all but locked in, but instead they face the prospect of missing out entirely.
The Cutters were scheduled to face North Cairns Tigers at Watsons Oval on Saturday afternoon, but the match and the rest of the league’s round 17 fixtures had to be cancelled due to the current restrictions on community sport in Cairns and Yarrabah.
A South Cairns victory – an almost guaranteed outcome against a Tigers side that has lost all 13 games this season by an average margin of 240 points – would have given the Cutters at least a two-game buffer inside the top four, as well as a healthy percentage boost, to make it near impossible for them to miss out on finals with two rounds left.
But, instead of cruising into the post-season, the Cutters will have to do it the hard way, as they prepare to face a Cairns City Lions side fighting to keep its own finals hopes alive this Sunday night.
Given the situation, South Cairns coach John Tootell probably has the most reason to be upset with the league’s updated fixture, but he is refusing to dwell on things he can’t control.
“We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” he said.
“It’s not a great situation for anyone, but as long as we can keep playing footy, that’s the main thing, I think.
“It would have been nice to be able to play all three games, but that’s the way it is.
“There’s pros and cons for all teams and it’s just one of those things where you either take it or leave it, and we are going to take it and do our very best and prepare for the next two rounds – and hopefully finals.”
Tootell said the Cutters had “nothing to complain about”.
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“We put ourselves in the position that we’re in, so we need to live with it,” he said.
“There’s probably been games that we should have won or that we didn’t turn up to and, with the injuries that have happened throughout the year, we are where we are and we just need to focus on the next couple of weeks.
“It’s an interesting situation and there’s still plenty to play for in the last two rounds.
“I don’t think we can make the top two now mathematically – so we’ve gone from potentially the top two to maybe missing out – but, like I said, we put ourselves in this situation so we just need to move on and keep playing towards trying to stay in the finals race.”
Tootell said jumping straight into a game this Sunday without being able to do any contact training for the two weeks leading into it would be a challenge, but he wasn’t overly concerned about a higher risk of injury.
“It’s more about fitness at the moment, and a little bit of individual skills,” he said.
“I think most clubs would like to have a bit of physicality in there, but a lot of these guys have been playing for 16 weeks, so there’s some that are probably going to enjoy the week rest to get their bodies right leading into finals.
“I don’t think there’s higher risk of injury, it’s more about the bumps and bruises in a physical sport. I think everyone should be fine.”
Coach hits out at AFL Cairns over player welfare
An AFL Cairns coach has accused the league of compromising player welfare by forcing teams to return to the field without any contact training.
The league revised its season schedule on Thursday, following the announcement that community sports would remain restricted and, in some cases, banned in Cairns and Yarrabah until 4pm on August 22.
If those restrictions are lifted as planned, AFL Cairns will play its round 18 seniors and reserves fixtures on the same date, with the reserves at 5pm and the seniors at 7pm.
All round 17 fixtures were cancelled and will not be rescheduled, while fixtures for round 19 and the finals series have not been affected.
Cairns Saints player-coach Wes Glass raised concerns about the league’s decision to play games immediately after the lifting of training restrictions, which included a 10-person limit per group and no physical contact between participants.
“The problem that I have is they’re expecting us to jump into a game with no physical contact training for two weeks before,” he said.
“If someone gets injured then it’s our fault, not theirs. They don’t care.
“Player welfare’s gone out the window, that’s how I see it – they’re not interested in player welfare, they’re only interested in themselves.
“What happens if 10 blokes get injured because they haven’t done any training? They expect blokes to just come out and play but we’re not professional footballers.
“They just treat it like we’re professionals up here, but at the end of the day, it’s country football.”
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Glass said the training restrictions would also make it difficult to select teams for round 18.
“How do you pick a team when you can’t train together?” he said.
“We trained (on Thursday) night and it was pretty hard.
“I went down and opened it up so they could use the footies and set up a couple of running drills.
“Ten of us went down there early, we were done by about 5.15pm, another group came in at about 5.30pm, and another group just after 6pm.
“You can do a bit of training but you can’t really do any team stuff, and you can’t communicate with the group face-to-face – that’s probably the worst thing.
“So you’ve go to pick a side without seeing if anyone’s actually right, which doesn’t really make sense.”
AFL Cairns president Gary Young said the league was comfortable in its decision to return on August 22.
“They can do plenty of ballwork and fitness in groups of 10, but they just can’t do the physical stuff they might normally do in a game simulation and stuff like that,” he said.
“It’s not that long a period of time, so I don’t think they’re going to lose a lot of muscle fitness or hardness – if it was a month, you’d be a bit more concerned – but it’s really only two weeks, so we’re not uncomfortable with that.
“I’m sure the guys personally, apart from whatever they do in those small groups, might get in the gym or hit a tackle bag to toughen up themselves a bit.
“Most of these guys that are playing senior footy, certainly the top layers, really look after themselves, and I think they’ll just continue to do that.
“I suppose you could say that Port Douglas are going to have a bit of an advantage, but on the other hand, having a week off might just help some of the other clubs that have got a lot of niggling injuries.”
The Saints are scheduled to face Port Douglas when AFL Cairns action returns on Sunday, August 22.
With the Crocs based outside the impacted areas, most of their players will be able to train as normal in the lead-up, but coach Brad Cooper said the side’s preparations were “pretty limited” this time of the year.
“We’re just trying to get guys healthy and fit,” he said.
Glass said the Crocs being able to do contact training “is what it is”.
“If (the restrictions) were up there, we’d be able to train here,” he said.
“We just got to beat them – if you beat them, you don’t have an issue.
“We need to win one of the last two games to finish first or second, that’s all we’re really concentrating on, getting the double chance.
“We’ve just got to keep doing what we can – there’s not much we can do – but we could not be playing at all.”
Lions still kicking as league makes call on fixtures
The Cairns City Lions are alive and kicking in the 2021 AFL Cairns premiership, but they’ll have only one chance to lock up their spot in the finals.
The league updated its fixtures on Thursday after the season was sent into disarray following the end of a snap three-day lockdown in Cairns and Yarrabah, with the announcement community sports would remain restricted and, in most cases, banned until 4pm on August 22.
AFL Cairns had initially planned to cancel round 17 and 18, but that scenario would not have given the Lions who currently sit in fifth spot, a fair opportunity to win the necessary games to make the finals, effectively ending their season.
The league has since decided to cancel one round – round 17 – to ensure all teams that were in finals contention before the restrictions were in place, will be in with a shot when footy returns.
“Essentially, we were trying to do was come up with something that was fair and where we could get as many games as we could in without pushing the season out,” said AFL Cairns president Gary Young.
“This still keeps the season alive in the case of Cairns City Lions. If they get up and perform and things go their way, they could still make the finals, whereas if we killed both of those rounds, they would have been out of contention.
“We’ve had a look at it, and if certain things can go certain ways, they’re still in there with a chance of playing finals.”
The six teams scheduled to play in round 17 will receive two points each, while the team scheduled for the bye – Port Douglas – will receive four points.
Provided community sport restrictions ease as planned, round 18’s seniors and reserves matches, originally scheduled for Saturday, August 21, will be played on Sunday, August 22, with the reserves at 5pm and seniors at 7pm. Fixtures for round 19 and the finals series have not been affected.
AFL Cairns Women’s round 18 fixtures have been moved to the night of Monday, August 23.
The round was supposed to take place as a triple-header at Cazalys Stadium for BCS Pride Round, but will now be played at the home side’s ground.
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WHAT YOUR TEAM NEEDS TO DO TO MAKE FINALS
South Cairns Cutters
Position: 3rd
Run home: Lions (H), Saints (A)
The scenario: A win against the Lions in round 18 will lock up a finals berth for the Cutters, but the result of their clash against Saints in the last week will determine whether they finish third or fourth.
Predicted finish: 4th
Centrals Trinity Beach Bulldogs
Position: 4th
Run home: Bye, Tigers (A)
The scenario: It would take something catastrophic for the Bulldogs to miss the finals from here, with the bye in round 18 before the winless Tigers to finish the season.
A win against the Tigers – a near sure thing – guarantees fourth spot, but they could sneak into third if Saints beat Cutters in the final round.
Predicted finish: 3rd
Cairns City Lions (5th)
Position: 5th
Run home: Cutters (A), bye
The scenario: The Lions must beat the Cutters in round 18 to stand a chance entering the final round. They have the bye in round 19 and will be able to make finals if Saints beat Cutters, with percentage to decide whether Lions or Cutters finish fourth.
Predicted finish: 5th
Cutters add to mounting injury toll in countdown to finals
UPDATE: The Cutters’ round 17 clash against North Cairns has been cancelled. AFL Cairns has cancelled the entire round from the season schedule due to restrictions on community sport in Cairns until August 22.
South Cairns will be without half of its best 22 this weekend as the club battles an injury crisis just three rounds out from the 2021 AFL Cairns finals.
The Cutters picked up a spate of injuries in the first half of Saturday’s 78-point defeat to the Crocs at Port Douglas, compounding the side’s worrying late-season injury woes.
South Cairns lost premier on-ballers Jake Johansen (hamstring) and Lachlan Rhook (collarbone) in the first quarter, before back pocket David Skeene (jaw) left the field in the second quarter following a bump from Crocs’ Daniel Moore.
Cutters’ winger Lachlan Smith also picked up a hamstring injury in the first quarter but played out the rest of the game.
Coach John Tootell said Rhook and Skeene’s injuries were the worst of them, with both players potentially facing lengthy stints on the sideline.
“Rhooky will be touch-and-go to see how he recovers,” Tootell said.
“It’s usually at least six weeks for something like that, so that’ll be pretty tough.
“Skeeney’s jaw, we’ll just have to see how that heals as well, that’s got a fracture in it so we’ll just see how that goes.
“Jake is probably a week or two, we’ll just see how that goes as well, and Lachy Smith is probably a week.”
The Cutters will welcome back Dwayne Bosen from suspension next week, and Tootell was hopeful some of the side’s other injured players would be ready to return.
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“Jaise Coleman should be back after this week, Luke McKeown hopefully as well, along with Tyson Williams, so we’ve got a few hopefully to come back in,” he said.
The Cutters are currently sitting in third position and while they should have no problem taking four points against North Cairns this Saturday, depending on other results and margins over the last three rounds, they are still a mathematical chance to miss the finals.
Tootell said the formula for his side was a simple one – they had to keep winning.
“We thought we were travelling okay and then all of a sudden we’ve had two to three weeks of constant injuries, which has been a bit of a downer, but we’ll just see who comes in, plus there’s a couple of young kids coming through as well,” he said.
“We’ll give some kids an opportunity this week, but we’ll probably go in with – gee whiz – 11 out of best 22 missing, so it’s just about trying to get the recovery and the rehab right and getting them ready for this Saturday, next Saturday and the following Saturday.
“We’ve got three games before finals, obviously we need to win to keep going, but it’s just about getting some rehab done on the boys and getting them ready to go.”
AFL Cairns clubs will only have the one training session this week to prepare for Saturday’s clash, with teams unable to train on Tuesday due to the three-day snap lockdown in Cairns and Yarrabah.
Tootell was hopeful his side would be able to return to training on Thursday, with the lockdown scheduled to end on Wednesday afternoon.
“We’ll lose a session but the boys probably need some recovery anyway after the weekend,” he said.
Originally published as Crocs banking on attitude ahead of top-of-the-table clash
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