When I first retired from professional football in 2014, I returned to my hometown, Cairns, and started coaching while running the family business. While I didn’t stay retired for long (I re-signed for the Newcastle Jets shortly after) I knew that when I retired for good, I'd go back to coaching full time.

Even while playing in the A-League, I returned to Cairns for coaching spells in the off-season or during my breaks. When I moved back home permanently I knew my passion was for youth development, so from there I started the Caravella Football Academy.

Now, nearly three years on, it’s something that’s very important to me. It keeps me in the game, and I love remaining involved. But in a place where many kids have never even seen an A-League game, simply because of the distance, growing the game has its challenges.

The biggest problem for junior footballers, particularly those with aspirations to go pro, is Far North Queensland’s population; finding regular, good-quality games and competitions is a struggle.

Another big issue is the travel. Distance becomes a huge issue for kids who want to develop as footballers. For me, as a footballer growing up in Cairns and even still now, we have to travel large distances to find quality opposition. Without this, there’s almost no development.

I think scrapping North Queensland Fury from the A-League had a massive impact on support for football in Cairns. There’s no top-flight representation for these young kids. You’ve got one A-League team covering the vast area of Queensland, Brisbane Roar, where before there was an A-League team in driving proximity.

Based in Townsville, you could become a season ticket holder and travel down to watch the team regularly. I think a second Queensland A-League club will work. Even at Gold Coast United under Clive Palmer - despite all the problems we had - the first couple of derbies were great rivalries with fantastic support.

There’s room for another club, it just has to have the right people behind it.