WIN FOR COAST FANS WITH SOUTHPORT TO HOST QAFL DECIDER
STATE football chiefs have listened to the fans and confirmed that this year’s QAFL grand final will be played on the Gold Coast.
The AFLQ’s state football operations manager Barry Gibson said the premiership decider has been scheduled for Wally Fankhauser Reserve, home ground of the Southport Sharks, on Saturday, September 23.
The decision is great news for Coast fans, especially with three local clubs – Labrador, Palm Beach-Currumbin and Broadbeach – sitting first, second and fourth on the ladder at the moment.
Last year the AFLQ drew widespread criticism from the tourist strip when they played a grand final between Labrador and PBC at Leyshon Park in Brisbane’s inner southern suburbs.
But this time around, and particularly considering the likelihood of two Coast clubs again contesting the grand final, the state bosses have bitten the bullet early.
“We went to all the clubs and there was a fairly strong support to play the grand final at a neutral venue, which Wally Fankhauser Reserve is,” Gibson said.
“There are always different views on neutral venues but certainly there is a genuine understanding around the logic of taking a grand final to the Gold Coast.
“We landed on Southport as the most appropriate neutral venue.”
The venue will not change even if two Coast clubs are not in the big game.
Gibson said the AFLQ sat down and listened to their stakeholders this year.
“There was certainly a strong show of support from competing teams last year that they would have preferred to play the game on the Gold Coast,” he said.
Broadbeach’s home ground at Ord Minnett Oval was considered but with the Cats still in the title hunt, the Musgrave Hill ground was the final choice.
The last time a state league grand final was played on the Coast Southport beat Morningside at the old Carrara stadium in 2008.