AFL in Cairns

coniglio_number1

Norm Smith Medallist
Sep 16, 2011
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It would be a good source of revenue but which team? St Kilda has extended it's relationship with NZ, hawks and north cover both northern and southern tas, Melbourne has been working alot in NT. Richmond, pies, dons, Carlton all have a major presence in melb and would be counter productive to move games to FNQLD.
 

Aussie in exile

Norm Smith Medallist
Nov 21, 2013
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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.
Would Cairns with it's tropical climate lend itself to having a AFL team when the the dry season doesn't start to about June?
In my opinion any games played there in April and May would be lotteries and mistake ridden played on quagmires.
 
Mar 24, 2017
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Would Cairns with it's tropical climate lend itself to having a AFL team when the the dry season doesn't start to about June?
In my opinion any games played there in April and May would be lotteries and mistake ridden played on quagmires.
One game each year in Cairns and Townsville is enough to service NQ for the foreseeable future.
 
One game each year in Cairns and Townsville is enough to service NQ for the foreseeable future.
I'd say
Add a second game to Cairns and a practice match at Mackay and it's starting to look right.

Maybe North when Tassie comes in?
 
More chance of Albury people of going to your home games, so definitely should check that out even if they are heavy already in other teams.

Gold Coast should control Cairns.
 

Seedsfan

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Oct 10, 2013
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As has been stated on this thread thus far it'll be quite some time before there is thought of a NQ/cairns team in the AFL, but i really do think there should be a push for a NQ team based at Cazaly's into the NEAFL in the coming years;
-help development local players.
-give footy fans up north a team to follow
-work as somewhat of a test run for a potential future AFL club up there

hell, I even knocked this up just now as an idea

View attachment 38358
I said that before in an expansion thread. They should look to Cairns and Newcastle places like that and establish pathways and academies to feed a NEAF side then in the future if you can make a business case for them you can promote them to the AFL
 

Tonatopia

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Sep 30, 2018
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The Population of Cairns is 160k.
Cazaly has a Capacity of 13,500
National Div 2 football is designed for this kind of entry.

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