President's Welcome Cairns 2004
It is my pleasure to welcome all players, participants and families to the 22nd National Masters Australian Football (MAF) Carnival. For the first time we are in the Far North Queensland city of Cairns. It is obvious, based on the support shown by all MAF state associations, in terms of player numbers, travelling partners and families, that Cairns is a popular choice. The MAF Board is continually on the lookout for new, interesting and popular locations to stage our premier annual event.
At our annual pre carnival August Board meeting there were nominations of an expected 36 teams in 4 divisions with some 760 players. Add umpires, officials and support staff and we should easily exceed 1000 participants. This should make the 2004 Cairns Carnival our biggest ever.
The Board is very pleased that we were able accept the invitation from AFL Cairns to stage the 2004 Carnival, we will have use of the well known Cazaly Stadium and Cazalys Club with three well prepared grounds in North Cairns. AFL Cairns has also organized the other regular carnival social functions and from all reports, will be great successes.
Drew Dawson, AFL Cairns Operations Manager, and his hard working carnival committee have been on the job for more than 12 months to ensure the success of this carnival. We are very appreciative of their efforts and based on what they have planned, we can look forward to a very impressive week.
I would like to wish all participants an enjoyable carnival and urge everyone to remember to take the usual precautions when in the tropical outdoors.
TIM GLEESON
NATIONAL PRESIDENT
