Club nails colours to region’s title drive

DON’T leave it in the sheds.

FNQ Heat coach Tim Campbell says it’s all or nothing for his side as they look to become the toast of the Far North tonight against Redlands United.

A week after the Cairns Marlins’ basketballers saluted in their state league, our footballers have the task of travelling to Brisbane’s Perry Park to earn some silverware to show for their superhuman efforts despite the numbers suggesting they shouldn’t.

The Heat players are on a pittance compared with their southern neighbours, travel 30,000km a season and have relied on a passionate band of volunteers to run a seamless organisation off the field so those with their feet on the ball can focus on winning.

The tireless efforts, the diehards who turn up to Barlow Park every fortnight and the thousands of youngsters running around in Cairns and on the Tablelands – that’s who they’re doing it for and it’s not lost on Campbell or his players.

Despite the respect between the Heat and Redlands United, only a no-holds-barred approach will do.

“They’ll want to win it,” Campbell said. “They’ve never won it, we’ve never won it.

“It’s a brand new grand final champion this year, so look, they’ll want to go all out for it.

“They want to beat us, we want to beat them. “It will be a great game,” “We’ve got some lads who are mature and have been there, they’ll help the other boys, but some of the younger boys, you’ve got to make the most of these evenings.

“A grand final in a state like strength as the Mareeba-based Bulls in the Queensland State League but the competition wrapped up in 2012 in favour of the new National Premier Leagues venture.

Football Queensland felt it strategically important to maintain a presence in the Far North and a new board was established featuring a merger of Queensland is a huge achievement for them but they’ve got to prove themselves and push on and enjoy it, enjoy the moment, because you don’t know how many of these you’re going to have.

“It’s a fantastic achievement for the club.

“It just shows when you live, breathe football like they do, what the possibilities are.”

A hearty crew of fans have booked their tickets to lead the cheer squad on top of what captain Jamie Carroll believes will be the lion’s share of support for the underdog Heat.

“There’s a lot of people coming down from Cairns and we also have a pretty good support base in Brisbane, living there, and I’m sure a lot of NPL clubs from Brisbane will be supporting us,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of contact from other clubs and representatives from other clubs wishing us the best of luck.”

Carroll said knowing they could beat Redlands after celebrating a 2-0 win at Innisfail was all the confidence they needed going into what he expected to be a tight match.

“Both teams have good strengths and weakness and we’ll be both looking to break each other down,” he said.

“I know we’ll have to defend well as a team, there’s no doubt about that and hopefully we can catch them on the counter, create some havoc up top.

“At the end of the day it’s a pretty even match I feel. It’s there for the taking.” FNQ Bulls and Cairns-based centre of excellence personnel.

Then-FNQ Bulls president Alex Srhoj, who was part of the transitional board, said it was decided the club should have a new identity, leading to the competition to allow the community to decide the new name. Orange was retained in respect to the Bulls and green, part of the colours of the centre of excellence.

Srhoj, who remains a coach at Mareeba Bulls, said he would be wearing extra orange tonight in support of the Heat, who were doing wonders for the sport in the region as a result of their success.

“I think it’s great for the region and I think it’s import- ant to see the Heat do well,” he said.

Srhoj said he had high hopes the Heat would make the most of going further than any FNQ team, still maintaining some of the Bulls spirit through ex-players Bronson Koppen, Jamie Carroll, Josh Pin, Tamas Maffey-Stumpe and Shaun Owens.