Cairns' Untapped Potential: Local Football Stars Forced to Leave Home for Elite Dreams

Far North Queensland has long been a fertile breeding ground for elite soccer talent, but a lack of local professional pathways continues to force young stars to choose between their families and their sporting dreams.

Growing up in Cairns, 19-year-old Leitu Wallwork dreamt of representing Australia at the highest level. For a rising junior star who made state representative sides, the ambition felt achievable. "I think every kid does dream about becoming a Matilda or Socceroo, especially since there's been a couple local girls playing in the Matildas with Winnie [Heatley] and Mary [Fowler] right now," Wallwork said. However, she found that living in the region presented a massive hurdle. She described living in Cairns as "definitely a barrier" to reaching the professional ranks, "especially if you want to go further with the Young Matildas or Young Socceroos".

The Cost of Chasing the Dream

To progress, Wallwork noted, "You definitely have to move away,". But relocating was not a viable option for the young Gudang Yadhaykenu woman, who chose to remain close to her family. After finishing high school in 2024, she became a coach with John Moriarty Football, a charity working to improve health, education, and wellbeing outcomes while boosting Indigenous participation in the sport. "Familial ties and home are very important and one of the biggest reasons why I'm still here," Wallwork said. "I can still help those other young girls who have those aspirations."

Wallwork believes that establishing a national-level team in Far North Queensland would provide young players with a clear, visible pathway to higher achievements. Historically, the region has produced a steady stream of national and international stars, such as A-League winning player and coach Steve Corica, retired Socceroos defender Michael Thwaite, and former national league midfielder Wayne Srhoj. Yet, Cairns has never hosted a national league club.

Current Matildas star Mary Fowler left Cairns for the Netherlands at just 11 years old. Similarly, 21-year-old Edge Hill United product Thomas Waddingham, who joined the Football Queensland academy at age 10 and is now contracted to English club Portsmouth, had to leave Cairns as a teenager to play for Brisbane Roar.

A Long-Standing Challenge

The pattern of leaving the region to succeed is not new. Former Socceroos coach Frank Farina, who played in Italy, France, and Belgium during the 1980s and 90s, was the first from the region to make it globally. However, he attributes his success largely to luck. "I was in the right place, right time … there were no pathways back then," Farina said. Spotted at a school carnival while playing for Far North Queensland, he was invited to the newly formed Australian Institute of Sport program. "I went into that program in 1981, I was selected in the Australian Under-20 team in 1983, and I was a Socceroo by 1984."

Farina, who coached the Socceroos for six years in the early 2000s, agrees that having a Cairns-based team in either the A-League or the second-tier National Premier League (NPL) would "undoubtedly" aid talent development. However, he views this as highly unlikely. "The biggest factor that kills even the idea of that is the financial side of things," Farina explained. "It's expensive to set up a team in Far North Queensland and [there just isn't] the funding for that." Under the current setup, Farina notes that "Talented players … have to be developed through the pathways that exist now but eventually they would have to move down south to where the hubs of football are."

Currently, the closest professional club to Cairns is Brisbane Roar, located 1,700 kilometres away. Only two of the ten Australian clubs in the top national domestic competition are situated outside capital cities. Regional ventures have struggled; Townsville's North Queensland Fury folded in 2011 after just two seasons due to financial constraints. Meanwhile, NPL Queensland currently features no teams from outside the state's south-east corner. Cairns FC joined the league in 2012 but collapsed in 2018 when its major financial backer pulled out, just weeks after the team reached the Australia Cup round of 16.

Community Spirit Shines Through

Former Cairns FC player Crios O'Hare remembers the devastating impact of the club's closure. "It was such a big loss, not just for the senior players but a massive loss for the region because it really killed off any kind of development pathway for local kids unfortunately," O'Hare said. "To have access to better coaching through that NPL system and then the chance to graduate into the first team, that's the way it should work."

Now acting as player-coach for community side Marlin Coast Rangers, O'Hare has helped guide his budgetless club to the Australia Cup's round of 32 this year—the furthest a Far North Queensland Premier League team has ever gone. He described the achievement as a bright spot in a region where soccer is "kind of struggling at the moment" due to the absence of A-League fixtures.

Looking ahead, Wallwork suggests soccer could take inspiration from rugby league's structure, where the Northern Pride plays in the state-based QRL Cup to nurture talent for the NRL's North Queensland Cowboys. "I wish they could do that for soccer," Wallwork said. "There's a lot of talent from up here that have to move [away]."