AFL in Cairns

thegreig

Club Legend
Aug 12, 2010
1,051
769
Eastern Suburbs, Melbourne
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Melbourne Stars BBL
I was watching a report on the ABC the other night on the governments plans of developing North Queensland particularly Cairns, two main points of the story were relocating public servants from Canberra and New Port to Cairns and making Cairns the home of Australia's main navy base. With the international airport extension tacking place in the near future and talks of a second casino being built up there it got me thinking how quickly the population will boom and how the AFL can grow/cement the game in the area.
The NRL already has the North Queensland Cowboys based in Townsville and I feel like it would be a wasted opportunity to grow the game if the AFL didn't do more than just play one game for points a year up there alongside a small local comp.
 

brisbane13

Cancelled
Nov 27, 2012
2,618
757
AFL Club
Essendon
I was watching a report on the ABC the other night on the governments plans of developing North Queensland particularly Cairns, two main points of the story were relocating public servants from Canberra and New Port to Cairns and making Cairns the home of Australia's main navy base. With the international airport extension tacking place in the near future and talks of a second casino being built up there it got me thinking how quickly the population will boom and how the AFL can grow/cement the game in the area.
The NRL already has the North Queensland Cowboys based in Townsville and I feel like it would be a wasted opportunity to grow the game if the AFL didn't do more than just play one game for points a year up there alongside a small local comp.

there isn't a population just yet for an AFL club. Townsville is a much larger town than cairns with people living cliser to the city. cairns population is vastly spread out.
a operating revenue for an AFL club more than 3 times that of an NRL club. most NRL clubs are around 15 million. AFL clubs are up to any where from 40 million to 65 million in operating revenue.
would be nice for an AFL team in cairns, but only in a dream
 
Sep 6, 2009
49,494
68,060
FNQ
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
Bears
Townsville isn't 'much larger' than Cairns anymore...Cairns will overtake Townsville in a few years plus has a growing hinterland population
 

Shane Hird

Cancelled
10k Posts A Star Wars Fan The Cult of Robbo Essendon Player Sponsor 2016
May 8, 2006
13,700
11,421
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
NYJ
Yeah..why not!!..and next after that Alice Springs..then Moe and let's get a team going in Albany W.A as well.

Don't stop until we have 32 teams I say.
 

Kreuuuzeurns

Brownlow Medallist
Sep 25, 2013
14,331
27,960
AFL Club
Carlton
Tassie first

Tassie is and always will be footy mad. I know what you're hinting at, they do deserve a team as much as any other city in Australia but I have always been under the impression that Cairns is 50/50 footy rugby, so it needs to be hit hard and made sure that the AFL is the clear number one.
 

coniglio_number1

Norm Smith Medallist
Sep 16, 2011
6,432
7,608
pannawonica
AFL Club
GWS
Wouldn't be bad if in 2020 another 2 teams enter with tassie and FNQ(far north qld). That being said tassie having free access to the tassie zone would mean they should be competitive earlier and will no doubt lure some tasmans back quite easily. Players like kolojashnij, mohr, reiwoldt, birchill, lonergan etc would make a good starting core not to mention the draft concessions
 

Hawker81

Team Captain
Apr 3, 2012
397
415
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Football is very popular in Port Douglas. A team in Cairns in the future would be great. Especially with the right scheduling of having games on long weekends and school holidays.
 
Jan 26, 2006
40,446
31,699
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
East Fremantle
Football is very popular in Port Douglas. A team in Cairns in the future would be great. Especially with the right scheduling of having games on long weekends and school holidays.

Excellent.
It's also popular in Oatlands so we can give Tassie a team
 

Aussie in exile

Norm Smith Medallist
Nov 21, 2013
5,114
3,730
AFL Club
Melbourne
With the money being spent on certain expansion clubs for the foreseeable future i can't see a team in North Queensland for at least 20 years. I'm with the guys who think the Tassie should have the next AFL club as IMO after start up costs in won't cost the game a cent.
 
Sep 6, 2009
49,494
68,060
FNQ
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
Bears
The AFL does have a presence in Cairns, and I'm pretty sure it has produced a couple of AFL level players
 
Back