Gold Coast starts recruiting
18 February 2008
THE Gold Coast Football Club will have a coach and squad of elite juniors by the end of this year to kickstart its push to establish an AFL team in the region by 2011.
AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan and league football operations staff will hold a meeting at league headquarters today to thrash out the details of how the new side can begin recruiting this year.
It is understood the AFL is desperate to have former Brisbane Lions skipper Michael Voss in charge.
Most of the players will come from the Queensland side that won last year's national carnival as under-16s.
It is believed establishment of the team could repeat the creation of Port Adelaide in 1996.
Port parked 29 players in the SANFL in the years leading up to the AFL team's creation and told them not to nominate for the draft. They were then taken as priority picks by Port in 1996.
News of the Gold Coast move came as the AFL Commission discussed having teams on the Gold Coast and in Sydney's west.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said the league had "articulated clearly that by 2015 we wanted to have matches every weekend in NSW and Queensland".
"And I have never . . . ruled out a possibility of a 17th or 18th licence," he said.
"It is not a bluff or not a scare tactic. The fact of the matter is we are deadly serious about expanding our competition.
"You shouldn't think that 2012 is when we actually put a team into western Sydney. It may be that we decide on a licence or licence-holder, and given them a proper lead-in time to have a team."
Demetriou said the appointment of a coach and CEO were the priorities so the Gold Coast club could start to build their playing list immediately.
The only way the formation of the 17th team can be blocked is if several of the 16 clubs submit objections.
That is unlikely to happen, but the league will face stiff opposition if the new club is given too many allowances to recruit star players.
It is likely the Gold Coast team will be given access to out-of-contract players from other clubs.
Demetriou said the league had no intention of allowing the new club to go on an all-out poaching raid on the competition's biggest names.
Demetriou admitted the quality of last year's under-16s, tipped by many to be among the best bunch of juniors ever produced in the state, had been brought to the AFL's attention.
Demetriou hinted that talk in local footy circles that the group had been earmarked for the Coast side was correct.
"I'm sure that issue will be in the mix," he said. "There are various sources to build a list from, and I don't subscribe to the theory that having an extra club will drain the talent. We need to be building this list over two years."
Most of the side will graduate to the under-18s this year. It is hoped they might rival the feats of ex-Lion Craig McRae's under-18 side of 2006, which won its division and had a record 11 Queensland kids drafted and a further seven taken as rookies.
Last Modified on 27/11/2008 10:28