Lions touch down in Townsville

Lions touch down in Townsville

4:23 PM Wed 6 February, 2008 | Back

By Jennifer Witham

Exclusive to AFL BigPond Network

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THE Brisbane Lions have touched down in Townsville to conduct the first-ever Telstra AFL Community Camp in the steamy northern Queensland town.

The club was officially welcomed by the deputy mayor of Townsville Cr Jenny Hill, who was presented with a framed Lions jumper from the 'Three-peat' era by coach Leigh Matthews.

"It's magic to have them here. It's the first time ever we've been able to get an AFL club here, and it's all 46 senior players," Cr Hill said.

"They're going out into the community to encourage kids to play sport, which I think it's a fantastic idea.

"Hopefully next year we'll be able to convince the AFL to let us have a pre-season game in Townsville."

Matthews, who stepped off the team bus into Townsville's unescapable humidity, said the weather didn't come as a surprise.

He also encouraged the public to attend the Lions' training session at Tony Ireland Riverway Stadium on Thursday night, which is set to be a more intense session than originally planned owing to the cancellation of Tuesday's intra-club hit-out.

"We all represent the sport ultimately, so it's great to be able to spread that message, and bring the Queensland AFL team to Townsville," he said.

"We're going to have a much more worthwhile viewing training session on Thursday night.

"We would have otherwise only been doing some pretty basic work. That gives the opportunity hopefully to see how the top AFL players move and kick and handle the footy.

"We'd encourage everyone to come out late in the afternoon to see that."

Lions co-captain Jonathan Brown said the purpose of the week would be to try and influence a rugby league-orientated town towards Australian Football.

"I haven't been to Townsville before so I'm looking forward to getting around and catching up with everyone," he said.

"You're trying to spread the message, and it's obviously a challenge trying to spread the message in Queensland, but we're up here and our main objective is to try and educate people about AFL, especially the younger community.

"It's also good to get away from training. We're using this as a lighter week, the boys have had a pretty difficult pre-season, which started back in October.

"It's a good chance for us to have a rest week."

AFLQ regional manager Richie Lyons said Australian Football has a following of over 1500 Auskick kids and around 700 actually playing. He also said he hopes the Lions' visit helps to further develop the game at grass roots level.

"It's fantastic to have them here. It's a big coup for AFL Townsville that we have a professional team here," he said.

"I think this is the start for us, as long as we do everything right, hopefully we can now aim for some pre-season games for the future.

"Junior kids in Townsville don't get to see professional players up close; they have to travel to Brisbane or Melbourne to see that, so we'll try and really make an impact at grass roots level."