NO YOU DON’T

AFL denies Suns’ bold bid for back-to-back Darwin games

A BOLD pitch form the Gold Coast Suns to host consecutive games in Darwin next year has been knocked back by the AFL.

But the club remains committed to developing their NT relationship.

The fixture, released on Monday, will have Gold Coast hosting just one game in Darwin, against Hawthorn in Round 11, with the day and time to be finalised as the 2021 season unfolds.

However, Gold Coast Suns chief executive Mark Evans revealed the club had requested to spend a week in the Northern Territory, book-ended by home games to make the most of the marketing aspect of the deal.

“We have said the Suns were open to remaining in Darwin for the full week and could play a second game the subsequent week,” he said. “But the way they’ve structure it is Sir Doug Nicholls Round will played over two rounds, with the Suns’ game in Darwin opening the round and a week later they’ll have the Melbourne game in Alice Springs.

“Hopefully 2021 will be a better year to be able to promote tourism and bring people up here at the best time of year.”

An ambitious pitch was also made to keep Darwin as the home of the Indigenous rounds’ marquee game Dreamtime at the ’G, between Essendon and Richmond.

But Mr Evans conceded it was a long shot.

“We worked really hard with AFLNT in 2020 to be able to get some games to Darwin including the Dreamtime at the ’G game,” he said.

“We had a cheeky request to the AFL to see if they would do that again but we knew that would always be difficult if the MCG was available.”

The relationship remains a priority for the club which is looking to build and develop a membership dedicated to Territory-based supporters of the Suns.

“We’ve connected with some Territorians based in southeast Queensland and hope to do special things with games at Metricon for them.

“The thing for us is to promote a Territory Suns membership.”

Mr Evans said playing marquee clubs in the Territory was a great result for the marketing aspect of the partnership and wasn’t concerned the bigger names would detract from the Suns’ involvement.

“To have Carlton in year one of the partnership and Hawthorn in year two is terrific,” he said.