{"id":67199,"date":"2025-08-14T08:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/67199\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T08:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:40:14","slug":"cairns-bids-to-be-hawthorns-second-home-once-tasmania-enters-the-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/67199\/","title":{"rendered":"Cairns bids to be Hawthorn’s second home once Tasmania enters the AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cairns is pitching itself as a potential second home for AFL powerhouse Hawthorn, should the Hawks’ long-standing deal with the Tasmanian government end in two years.<\/p>\n

Football powerbrokers in Far North Queensland want to lock in regular AFL men’s premiership matches, which Cairns last hosted in 2022.<\/p>\n

AFL Cairns and the Queensland government already have a three-year deal with Hawthorn, whose AFLW side will play a third home game in as many years at Cazalys Stadium next month.<\/p>\n

AFL Cairns and Cazalys Stadium general manager Craig Lees said he made the case for more elite men’s football when AFL chief Andrew Dillon visited Far North Queensland last month.<\/p>\n

Mr Lees said Cairns wanted to replace Launceston as the Hawks’ interstate base once the Tasmania Devils entered the AFL<\/a> \u2014 a move which could bring up to four home-and-away matches a year to the far north from 2028.<\/p>\n

\"Football<\/p>\n

Cairns hosted a thrilling match in 2012 between Gold Coast and Richmond. (AAP: Brian Cassey)<\/p>\n

“That is our focus, to try and see if we can unlock those destination games,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to convince Hawthorn this should be their next destination and their home, hopefully for the next 25 years, because that’s how long the Launceston relationship was.”<\/p>\n

Hawthorn has publicly declared its desire to continue hosting matches in Tasmania even after the Devils enter the competition, despite opposition from Devils CEO Brendon Gale.<\/p>\n

The Hawks have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Northern cities could join forces<\/p>\n

Cairns is also exploring the idea of teaming up with the Northern Territory, which intends to bid for a licence to become the AFL’s 20th team<\/a> should the code continue to expand.<\/p>\n

Mr Lees confirmed he had already had discussions with AFLNT.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think a one-out 20th licence in Cairns works,” he said.<\/p>\n

“However, we are happy to play our role in what that may look like in the future.”<\/p>\n

\"Carlton<\/p>\n

Hawthorn has hosted four matches a year at York Park in Launceston since 2007. (AAP: Rob Blakers)<\/p>\n

Cairns Mayor Amy Eden, who also met with Mr Dillon, is a former Territorian and has backed a partnership with the NT.<\/p>\n

“One of the things we pitched to Andrew Dillon was maybe a northern Gather Round, where we share it with Darwin,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We are quite regional in that sense, and if we can produce world-class events and do it together, then it just cements both of our successes in the future.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Amy Eden and Craig Lees have met with AFL CEO Andrew Dillon. (ABC Far North: Christopher Testa)<\/p>\n

Cazalys Stadium is hosting a Twenty20 cricket series decider between Australia and South Africa on Saturday night, ahead of a one-day international on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Mr Lees said another goal was to secure Olympic cricket if the sport was added to the 2032 games program.<\/p>\n

Assistant state tourism minister Bree James said the government was “unashamedly chasing sporting events” to bring to Queensland.<\/p>\n

“I think all options are on the table and I think our minister for sport will be looking at any negotiations he can that improves the sport we have in our state,” she said.<\/p>\n

One of the Barron River MP’s constituents, 12-year-old Ollie Hourigan, has launched an online petition to bring an AFL team to Cairns.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been putting that on my social media for him, so I’m very supportive of having an elite team like that here in Far North Queensland,” Ms James said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cairns is pitching itself as a potential second home for AFL powerhouse Hawthorn, should the Hawks’ long-standing deal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[53435,638,53428,53434,53431,12259,64,63,55,639,53433,53430,53429,18589,85,53432],"class_list":["post-67199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-20th-afl-licence","tag-afl","tag-afl-cairns","tag-afl-expansion","tag-aflnt","tag-andrew-dillon","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brendon-gale","tag-cazalys-stadium","tag-craig-lees","tag-hawthorn-football-club","tag-sports","tag-tasmania-devils"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}