Cairns in contention to host AFLW grand final, should Brisbane Lions make the decider
The AFL is exploring the possibility of playing the AFLW grand final in Cairns should the Brisbane Lions qualify, among a raft of potential venues.
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The AFL is exploring the possibility of playing the AFLW grand final in Cairns should the Brisbane Lions qualify.
With just four teams remaining in the premiership race, the venue for the grand final – due to be held on the weekend of November 26-27 – remains up in the air. Unlike in the men’s competition, ordinarily the AFLW grand final is held in the home city of the highest-ranked qualifier.
The Lions will be that team if they beat Adelaide in Friday night’s preliminary final at Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium. But the picture for where the Lions would host the grand final is much less clear. The Gabba has been ruled out because of preparations for the cricket Test between Australia and South Africa, while Metricon is hosting music events that weekend and similarly unavailable.
Brisbane’s new Springfield training base is yet to host a game and there are major doubts over whether the ground would be ready to stage such an important match.
That has left the league looking at creative options. Industry sources have confirmed that the AFL is considering scheduling the game for Cairns’ Cazaly’s Stadium, which has a capacity of 13,500. The venue has never hosted an AFLW game but occasional AFL matches have been played at the ground for more than a decade, while Australia played New Zealand in three cricket one-day internationals at the ground earlier this year.
Playing the game in Cairns would at least allow the Lions to have home-state advantage. Another possibility is that the game could be played at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, in which case the Lions would cede that advantage but be able to play in front of their contingent of Victorian supporters. Brisbane has not given up hope of playing the game at Springfield, either.
The other preliminary final is between Melbourne and North Melbourne at Ikon Park on Saturday. A Melbourne-Adelaide grand final would be held in Melbourne, with the AFL-owned Marvel in pole position to host in that instance.
An Adelaide-North grand final – the least likely outcome on finals seedings – should be held in Adelaide according to seedings; although cricket and music commitments on either side of grand final weekend create a challenge to playing the game at Adelaide Oval, where three AFLW grand finals have previously been held. Suburban Unley Oval is another consideration should the Crows earn the right to host the game.
The scheduling issues have in large part been caused by the decision to move the season from a January start to an August start.
It is not the first time there have been issues with the AFLW grand final venue. In 2017, the Lions hosted the Crows at Metricon after the Gabba was deemed unavailable because of concerns related to its cricket pitch.
AFL head of women’s football Nicole Livingstone said earlier this month that the league was remaining non-committal on a grand final venue.
“We won’t make any announcements around (the) grand final right now,“ Livingstone said.
“Because we still need to wait to see who’s going to make the grand final.
“We’ll continue to work with all stakeholders. We have a great relationship with cricket, so we’ll continue to talk to cricket and also talk to the Queensland government (about the Gabba).
“But I don’t want to put the cart before the horse – we need to make sure that Brisbane are going to be the hosts.”
Originally published as Cairns in contention to host AFLW grand final, should Brisbane Lions make the decider
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