AFL Cairns dominate NQ squad
AFL Cairns players comprise more than half of the North Queensland preliminary squad ahead of the annual intrastate clash at Townsville.
Port Douglas is the most highly represented AFL Cairns club with 10 players named for the NQ squad, with five each from South Cairns, Cairns City Lions, and Cairns Saints, and four from Manunda.
Returning for his third term in charge, North Queensland coach Brad Cooper said the selection process is always challenging due to the tyranny of distance between leagues.
“It’s always challenging from an ID perspective when we are selecting players between Gladstone and Cairns, but the selectors in each region have a great feel for their players, so I’m pretty comfortable that we have a squad that will allow us to select a team that can give us every chance of squaring the ledger with SQ”, Cooper said.
The clash with South Queensland will be played as a twilight curtain closer to Townsville’s first AFL game, when it hosts Gold Coast Suns’ and St Kilda on June 15.
South Cairns: Damien Dewis, James Dixon, Steven Stow, Jermaine Wardle, Isaac Ketchen
Cairns City Lions: Liam Woodcock-Nowlan, Aaron Davey, Edward Sansbury, Daniel Mooka, Tyron Rainbird Manunda: Corey Flint, Ezekiel Frank, Tyler Gorogo, Chris Novy
Cairns Saints: Jack Philp, Cade Wellington, Rhys Bridge, Mark Horne, Joseph Kearsley
Port Douglas: Josh Wilson, Wesley Glass, Brett Meredith, Joshua Mawson, Adam Gross, Brett McKeown, Kye Chapple, Wayne Pavitt, Daniel Moore, Ashley Davidson.