Sport
10 February, 2025
AFL ‘25 season kicks off
THE countdown to a thrilling season of footy is on with the announcement of AFL Cairns’ fixtures for 2025 featuring exciting changes and a new representative fixture kicking off on April 12.
The season will kick off with an exciting match up of the Centrals Bulldogs and the Manunda Hawks at Crathern Park from 12.30pm to relive last year’s beginning of the season and put to test off-season recruitments.
This will be a crucial match for the Manunda Hawks who – under the guidance of new head coach Steve Williams – are hoping to come out of their rut.
The Cairns City Lions will face the Port Douglas Crocs at the ITEC Group Oval and the reigning champions the South Cairns Cutters – led by new coach Andrew Boston – will face the Cairns Saints at Watson’s Oval expecting to repeat last year’s glory.
“I’m really proud of this 2025 fixture, it’s been a massive effort,” said AFL Cairns football operations manager Brad Channon.
“We have 16 rounds this year, we start off with Legacy Round in round three, we will move through some club rounds down to Indigenous Round at ITEC Group Oval, moving over to Mental Health Round which falls on International Pride Day this year as well as Cause for Celebration and community umpiring week.
“There’s only one representative fixture. Last year we got some news from AFL Queensland that there was going to be some changes at the top, so this season doesn’t feature a North Queensland vs South Queensland representative fixture.
“This year our standalone representative fixture is the All Stars versus ISP game at Cazalys on May 31 which also coincides with the Great Barrier Reef Master Games.
“ANZAC Day is going to be a cracker with all three games on the same day and, with Legacy, we’ll be working towards raising at least $1 million for Legacy House.”
Legacy Round will be one not to miss with all three matches happening on Friday, April 25 where fans will get to see the rematch of the century between the reigning premiers the Cutters and the runner-ups the North Cairns Tigers.
This match will be even more intriguing as the Cutters new coach Andrew Boston will aim to show that under his leadership the team can once again make it into the finals, while Tigers president George Aplin says this is bound to be an interesting match to test the synergy of both teams.
“Big shoes to fill, obviously Daryn (Daryn Creswell former head coach) did a terrific job in both grades, development and seniors so coming off the successful year it’s just keeping the momentum,” Mr Boston said.
“There obviously is going to be a big turnover of players. It’s going to be a different looking side, but we’re bringing in a lot of talent, and good people to our football club, because our culture is the number one thing we want to concentrate on.”
For the complete 2025 fixtures, visit https://bit.ly/40NgKPy
