VFL teams off to Gold Coast
The Sunday Age
Sunday December 6, 2009
WHILE it is usually seen as a stroke of bad luck when a team gets an interstate fixture, 10 VFL teams believe they have hit the jackpot in scoring a trip to the Gold Coast when GC17 makes its VFL debut next season.Only reigning premier North Ballarat, Northern Bullants and Coburg Tigers missed out. It is the first time since the loss of Tasmania at the end of the 2008 season that an interstate team will join the competition, eliminating the bye.Gold Coast will take Victorian football to Southport, Cairns, Labrador and Broadbeach throughout the season.Frankston, which plays Gold Coast in round 10 at Broadbeach, sees the travel as a "good bonding exercise" with all travel expenses paid by Gold Coast and AFL Victoria."As a standalone club, it was a really good bonding exercise going to Tassie," Frankston general manager Bryan Mace said."It depends on how much the boys eat when they're up there, that's the only thing that we'll be out of pocket on."If it was early in the year, we thought it was particularly good value."But it would be good to tell our sponsors that we're heading interstate because it always helps with sales a bit," he said.Gold Coast will make its debut in the VFL against Port Melbourne at Southport in the season opener at Southport on April 10.Its first game in Melbourne will be against the Werribee Tigers at Chirnside Park in Werribee in round three.
© 2009 The Sunday Age
