MARCH 1987. I was 11 and a giant box of goodies arrived at the Voss household. Flags, stickers, T-shirts, magazines and personalised membership tickets. It was like Christmas.

My dad was a foundation member of the Brisbane Bears and as a footy family it was just fantastic. Our own team and my first real memory of AFL in Queensland.

Yet at school the next day I was ridiculed (again) because I played "cross-country ballet".

I copped plenty with one of my best mates, Matt Wellington, son of former Essendon player Pat Wellington. We were the only two at school who followed AFL.

Five years on, when I was a year-11 student playing for the Bears, nobody much cared. They didn't understand. Other kids were just jealous because I'd get every second Friday off school.

Once, I had to run a cross-country race the day before playing at the MCG because they just didn't get it.

That was where footy was in Queensland in 1992. Fantastic for the minority who followed it, but a blip on the sporting radar for the overwhelming majority.

Fast forward to April 2008 and it's a totally different story.

We heard a mountain of talk this week about names and colours as the Gold Coast bid team for the AFL's 17th AFL side was launched. About stadiums and draft concessions. And about prospective coaches and officials. And a whole lot more.

Yet not once did I hear anyone question the validity of it all. Not once did anyone say it wouldn't work and we were going down the wrong track.

That's phenomenal, because it tells us how far the game has come in south-east Queensland.

It's not a question of whether the AFL can afford to establish a second team in south-east Queensland but whether it can afford not to. And the answer, categorically, is that it can't afford not to.

There's still a mountain of work to do but it will be successful because of the progress that has been made by the collective AFL community in this fast-growing region.

It's incredible to think it was December 6 last year that North Melbourne rejected the AFL's $100 million Gold Coast relocation package.

I'm like most people … an interested spectator who is excited by the prospect of a new club.Information has been drip-fed to existing clubs and the football community, and some clarity is unfolding. We have an appetite for answers. This has been our nourishment as the AFL has built a strategy behind closed doors.

We've been forced to speculate on everything. Short on detail, we've filled in the blanks. Coaches, administrators, recruiters, even players have been "assigned" to the club.

It's like a new dream-team game … form your own club! Everyone has an opinion.

Reality is, it's not even a club. It's a bid team charged with the responsibility of meeting the AFL's stringent criteria. It's an opportunity. And now it's their job to really fill in the blanks.

The Gold Coast questions are endless. The playing list is one big-ticket item. How, who, where and when? Fascinating and unique. I'm sure they'll do it better than the birth of the Bears 22 years ago. Will it actually be 2011? Will they be ready? And where will they play?

One thing I do know is that the Gold Coast side will not play all its games in Brisbane for the first five years if it has any hope of survival. Sure, the Brisbane-based Bears played at Carrara for six years under Christopher Skase and Paul Cronin, but that won't happen again. It can't.

Somehow, there must be a resolution to the supposed stand-off between the AFL and the Queensland Government over the contract that says a second AFL side based in south-east Queensland must play at the Gabba until 2015 unless the AFL hands over $40 million.

It's been like the start of a boxing match. The Government and the AFL have gone to their corners, each flexing their muscles. But rather than a 15-rounder we need a compromise. A team on the Gold Coast will be great for the Brisbane Lions, creating more widespread interest in the code and a tremendous rivalry between the two clubs.

Just as it has between the Brisbane Broncos and the Gold Coast Titans in rugby league.

I, like everyone else, am trying to anticipate where all this might go and what the answers might be. I find it fascinating.