QAFL teams will play in 20 different venues across six different cities in the Northern Conference of the new North Eastern Australian Football League in 2011 following the release of the draw today.
FROM www.aflq.com.au
QAFL teams will play in 20 different venues across six different cities in the Northern Conference of the new North Eastern Australian Football League in 2011.
In the draw announced today, each side in the 10-team conference will play 18 games over a 21-week home-and-away season starting on 2-3 April, with each team having two byes in addition to an all-teams-bye on 18 June (Round 12) for Queensland’s interstate clash with Western Australia in Perth.
A four-week conference finals series will begin on 28 August and culminate in a Northern Conference grand final in south-east Queensland on Sunday 18 September.
The Northern Conference premiers will meet the Eastern Conference premiers at a location still to be determined on Sunday 25 September – six days out from the AFL grand final on 1 October.
The 10-team Northern Conference will comprise Brisbane-based Morningside, Mt.Gravatt, Redland and Aspley, Gold Coast-based Southport, Labrador and Broadbeach, the Darwin-based NT Thunder, plus Reserves teams from AFL clubs Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns.
The seven-team Southern Conference will be made up of Canberra-based Ainslie, Eastlake, Queanbeyan, Tuggeranong and Belconnen, plus Reserves teams from AFL clubs Sydney Swans and Greater Western Sydney Giants.
Matches will be played in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Darwin, Cairns, Sydney and Canberra.
Each Brisbane-based former QAFL side will play interstate at least once, with Redland and Mt.Gravatt topping the travel schedule with three interstate trips apiece.
In addition to the traditional club homegrounds, matches in south-east Queensland will be played subject to final confirmation at the new QAFL headquarters at Yeronga, plus the former QAFL home at Coorparoo, the Gabba and the redeveloped Gold Coast Stadium at Carrara.
A game will also be played at Cazaly’s Stadium in Cairns between the NT Thunder and the Suns Reserves.
The Thunder will play 12 ‘home’ games – eight in Darwin and four in Alice Springs – while Eastlake, Ainslie, Belconnen and Queanbeyan will travel to south-east Queensland to play.
Mt.Gravatt, Broadbeach, Southport and Redland will travel to Canberra to play.
The Swans Reserves and the Giants Reserves will travel to south-east Queensland twice each to play the Lions and the Suns Reserves, with rugby league convert Israel Folau (pictured) scheduled to play against the Lions at either Coorparoo or the Gabba in Round 7, and against the Suns at Gold Coast Stadium in Round 21.
The Lions Reserves will travel three times to Sydney (twice) and Darwin, and the Suns Reserves will travel four times to Darwin, Sydney (twice) and Cairns.
A summary of the 2011 NEAFL draw on a club-by-club basis is:-
ASPLEY – Will play nine home games at Graham Road, will travel to Darwin (Round 1) and Alice Springs (Round 13) and will host Belconnen (Round 18). Will play Redland and Mt.Gravatt three times each, NT, Broadbeach, Labrador and Morningside twice each, and Southport, Belconnen, the Suns and the Lions once. Will have a bye in Round 4 and Round 18.
BRISBANE LIONS RESERVES – Will play five ‘home’ games at Sherwood under an arrangement that will see them draw their top-up players from the Western Magpies, who have returned to the QAFL’s Pineapple Hotel cup after two years in the QAFL State League. Will travel to Darwin (Round 11) to play the NT and to Sydney’s Blacktown Stadium to play the Giants (Round 14) and Swans Reserves (Round 21). Still to confirm whether they will play curtain-raisers at the Gabba, they have three games still ‘floating’ in the draw – against the Suns Reserves (Round 6) that will be at Yeronga or the Gabba, and against the Giants (Round 8) and the Swans Reserves (Round 10) that will be Coorparoo or the Gabba. Will play the Suns three times, the Giants, Morningside, Labrador, NT and Swans Reserves twice, and Southport, Redland, Mt.Gravatt, Aspley and Broadbeach only once each. Will have a bye in Round 3 and Round 18.
BROADBEACH – Will play nine games at Merrimac and will travel twice to play Eastlake in Canberra (Round 3) and NT in Alice Springs (Round 17). Will play Southport and Labrador three times each, NT, Aspley, Morningside and Redland twice each, and the Lions, Suns, Mt.Gravatt and Eastlaake once each. Will have a bye in Round 5 and Round 18.
GOLD COAST SUNS RESERVES – Will play their first two home games at Yeronga while Gold Coast Stadium is being completed – against Mt.Gravatt (Round 1), Aspley (Round 3) – and possibly again at Yeronga against the Lions (Round 6) if that game is not played as a Gabba curtain-raiser. Then, after development works are completed at Carrara, they will play their last five home games as curtain-raisers against Southport (Round 9), Morningside (Round 11), the Swans Reserves (Round 15), Lions Reserves (Round 17) and the Giants (Round 21). Will travel interstate four times to Darwin (Round 2) to meet NT, to Sydney to meet the Swans Reserves at the SCG (Round 7) and the Giants at Blacktown in Round 19, and to Cairns to meet the NT (Round 16). Will play the Lions three times, the Giants, Swans Reserves, Southport, Mt.Gravatt and NT twice each, and Morningside, Redland, Labrador, Aspley and Broadbeach once each. Will have a bye in Round 8 and Round 18.
LABRADOR – The beaten QAFL grand finalists of 2010 will play nine times at Cooke-Murphy Reserve, including a game against ACT powerhouse Ainslie in Round 14, and will travel interstate only once. And that won’t be until Round 21, when they will head to Darwin to meet the NT. Will play Broadbeach three times, the Lions, Redland, Southport, Aspley, Mt.Gravatt and Morningside twice each, and the Suns, NT and Ainslie once each. Will have a bye in Round 8 and Round 17.
MORNINGSIDE – The 2010 QAFL premiers will play nine games at home at Esplen Oval, including Round 3 against Eastlake, and will travel to Darwin in Round 5 to take on the NT. Have the most balance draw in the Northern Conference, with two games each against the Lions, Redland, Broadbeach, NT, Aspley, Southport, Labrador and Mt.Gravatt, and one game each against the Suns and Eastlake. Will have a bye in Round 9 and Round 17.
MT.GRAVATT - Will play eight home games at Dittmer Park while travelling interstate to Canberra to play Queanbeyan (Round 3) and Alice Springs (Round 7) and Darwin (Round 20) to play the NT. Will have three games against Aspley, two each against the Suns, Southport, Labrador, NT, Redland and Morningside, and one each against the Lions, Broadbeach and Queanbeyan. Will have a bye in Round 4 and Round 17.
N.T. THUNDER – Will play 12 ‘home’ games – eight in Darwin against Aspley, Suns Reserves, Morningside, Redland, Lions Reserves, Giants, Mt.Gravatt and Labrador, and four in Alice Springs against Redland, Mt.Gravatt, Aspley and Broadbeach. Will travel to Cairns to meet the Suns Reserves in Round 16), and to south-east Queensland to meet Broadbeach (Round 3),Southport (Round 6), Lions Reserves (Sherwood – Round 8) and Morningside (Round 15), plus the Giants at Blacktown (Round 19). Will play Lions, Giants, Suns, Aspley, Broadbeach, Redland, Morningside and Mt.Gravatt twice each, and Southport and Labrador once each. Will have a bye in Round 9 and Round 18.
REDLAND – Will play eight home games at Victoria Point, and will travel to Canberra (Round 17) to play Tuggeranong, and Alice Springs (Round 4) and Darwin (10) to play the NT. Will play Aspley three times, Labrador, Morningside, NT, Broadbeach, Southport and Mt.Gravatt twice each, and the Lions, Suns and Tuggeranong once each. Will have a bye in Round 3 and Round 18.
SOUTHPORT – Will play nine home games at Fankhauser Reserve, including Queanbeyan in Round 19, and will travel to Canberra to meet Ainslie in Round 13 but will be the only southern team spared a trip to the NT. Will play Broadbeach three times, Mt.Gravatt, Labrador, Morningside, Redland and the Suns twice, and the Lions, NT, Aspley, Ainslie and Queanbeyan once each. Will have a bye in Round 5 and Round 17.
To view the full 2011 NEAFL Draw, please click here.