First Ruddy, now the AFL: Noosa rolls out welcome mat

‘I get it, it’s beautiful and it’s COVID free. Why wouldn’t Victorians want to come to here?’

OPINION: As one of Australia's biggest tourism showcases, Noosa is never far from the headlines.

Thanks to the great people of Queensland, we have been able to halt the spread of COVID-19 and now it seems the rest of the country wants in.

None more so than our Victorian football stars and former politicians.

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With his business-savvy wife Therese Rein, we are sure to see a lot more of former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd out-and-about in the Shire.

The self-confessed handball champion has moved back to his home state after driving a hard bargain on their $17 million property in Sunshine Beach.

This comes only days after Victorian-based rugby league team the Melbourne Storm sidestepped the border restrictions and set up camp on the Coast.

Not to be outdone, it was announced on Friday, July 3, the AFL wants a piece of the sunny action as well.

As early as Sunday, July 5, we will be welcoming one of AFL's powerhouse teams off the plane.

In between taking marks and kicking behinds, the St Kilda Saints will spend their July with us in Noosa.

As a Noosa journalist, let me be the first to welcome all these famous Victorian sportspeople, and those who work alongside them, to our beautiful piece of Queensland paradise.

Having you all in the region will certainly help boost our tourism sector, which has been hit harder than a good footy tackle in the past couple of months.

I get it, it's beautiful and it's COVID free.

Why wouldn't Victorians want to come here?

But just hold those southern horses.

Us Queenslanders have done a bloody good job of keeping the dreaded 'Rona' out of our beloved state.

We respectfully invite you to join us in keeping our stats to nil.

Seeing how poorly some of you kick goals, keeping to nil might not be so hard after all.

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