Special spot for visa

Humidity bound to sap field of overseas applicants

FOOTBALL ONLY a special player will do for the FNQ Heat as the club starts the process to fill the vacant visa player spot for 2017.

Shimon Watanabe’s departure will open the door for a new overseas player to sign on next season – as long as they can handle a gruelling preseason in the Far North heat and humidity and don’t command top dollar.

The potential loss of Kieran Sanders, who has been encouraged to chase a future in football in Melbourne, could make who fills the prized position all the more important.

FNQ Heat coach Tim Campbell said the attitude of the player, rather than the position they played, would be pivotal in deciding who gets the role.

“We do have a visa spot open, which is always good for us to attract people in,” he said. “We’ve got some key people, obviously Kieran Sanders is one of them, and look, I encouraged the boy to go and try to find a future in football. That’s what we can do here.

“Kieran’s been talking to a few clubs but we’ll do everything in our power to keep him.

“For my money he’s the best player in the NPL so we’ll do everything we can.

“It absolutely will be key and, of course, key for the other players we attract. But there’s something about being in Cairns. We need a special player. We need someone who’s going to come, contrib- ute, be part of the club and get involved with the team spirit.

“We have quite a good club spirit outside the football as well. They all work hard and they like to train and they like to socialise as well. We want someone to fit into that

“We have a very basic, equitable expenses program here so visa players who come here and want $1000 a week, they’re just not our type of player.”

Campbell expected “five or six” visa applicants to start preseason training but be quickly whittled down of their own volition.

“Some visa players come to play and run out on Endeavour Park in the first week of January and they don’t stay very long. You run them around the field for 20 minutes and they’re gone. So we’ve got to work out that bit as well,” he said.