HAWKS HOPES SOAR

Hawks buoyed by meeting with officials

WHETHER or not the Manunda Hawks will be able to participate in this year’s abbreviated AFL Cairns season is still not yet known, but the club is feeling more confident than ever after meeting with AFL Cairns officials on Tuesday night.

Hawks president Garry Hartrick said the club was left buoyed by the key meeting and the Hawks’ committee would make a decision on whether or not the club would be able to participate in the 2020 AFL Cairns season, without jeopardising its long-term sustainability, in the next week.

“They put forward the same proposal they gave to all the clubs last week and then suggested, with the idea that things are going to open up a bit more and we may have a greater possibility of getting crowds at home games, there was potentially the scope to be able to charge admission, get some money from the kiosk and get some money from the bar, which is always going to be helpful,” he said.

“The other thing that they brought to the table was some rent relief. We pay an enormous amount to use that stadium (Cazalys), so they offered to give us some rental subsidies for this year and this year alone.”

Hartrick said the committee would “do the sums” in the coming days before making an informed decision about whether they could participate this year, without ruining their chances of getting a side on the ground next year.

“We want to participate because we’ve got players who want to play footy, but we have to be cognisant of the fact that participation might result in financial embarrassment because of our severely limited abilities to raise funds through raffles, gate receipts and, of course, sponsorship, which has just been decimated,” he said.

“The last thing we want to do is have ourselves go hard this year and rack up an incredible debt which we’ll be lumped with for the next however many years. That would just be disastrous and something that I’m not willing to cop.”

Hartrick said he was feeling “a lot better” about the club’s future now than he was after last week’s coaches and presidents meeting.

“A week ago, I was very pessimistic about our chances of getting teams on board, due to both the number of players, as well as the ability to finance such a venture,” he said.

“This week, I can see that there’s a genuine interest by a number of players who just want to go out there and play footy.

“So it’s off to the committee and we’ll see how we go from there.”