Australian rules football in Queensland
First official football code played in 1866 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Australian rules football in Queensland (typically referred to as "AFL", or less frequently "Australian Football", "Aussie Rules" or "Australian Rules") describes the team sport played and observed in the Australian state. It dates back to the colonial era in 1866, with organised competitions being continuous since the 1900s. Today, it is most popular in South East Queensland and the Cairns Region. It is governed by AFL Queensland which coordinates 11 regional club competitions with more than 55,000 registered adult players.
Australian rules football in Queensland | |
---|---|
Governing body | AFL Queensland |
Representative team | Queensland |
First played | Brisbane 9 June 1866; 157 years ago (9 June 1866) |
Registered players | 55,191[1] |
Clubs | 130 (10 competitions) |
Club competitions | |
Audience records | |
Single match | 37,473 (2019). AFL Second Qualifying Final Brisbane Lions vs Richmond (Gabba, Brisbane)[2] |
It was the first official football code played in the capital Brisbane as early as 1866, second after Victoria. For two decades it remained the premier code, however a strong desire for representative success against New South Wales saw its rapid demise as Queenslanders switched to British football variants. Existing in the shadow of three other football codes, and east of the cultural divide now described as the Barassi Line, it re-emerged mainly through its postwar re-appearance in schools and interstate migration. In 1986 it became the first state awarded a new license, and first privately owned club, in the national (AFL) competition. However the Gold Coast based Brisbane Bears' identity crisis, poor management and lack of success, compounded by the popularity of the Brisbane Broncos, were major setbacks to the code. The club's relocation in 1993 to the Brisbane Cricket Ground (Gabba) and traditional membership-based structure, helped average AFL attendances and television ratings to triple from 1993 to 1996[3][4][5] The success that followed its merger with a Victorian club in the AFL and national women's competition (AFLW) helped the code's participation to surge across the state in the early 21st century. According to Ausplay, player numbers are now third behind soccer and rugby league, surpassing rugby union for the first time in a over a century. Combined average AFL club membership, television audience and attendance, while growing, is the smallest of any state.[6] An increasing number of players have found pathways to the elite professional national level. As at 2020 more than 100 males and almost 50 females had played at the sport's highest level (AFL/AFLW), however only a dozen have played more than 200 games.
Queensland has two fully professional teams competing in the AFL: the Brisbane Lions (1996) and Gold Coast Suns (2009). These two teams compete against each other in the QClash. Queensland hosted the inaugural AFLW Grand Final in 2017 and was the second state in history to host the AFL Grand Final (in 2020). AFL Premiership matches are now regularly played in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Cairns. The AFL began matches in Townsville along with AFLW matches in Moreton Bay, Mackay in the 2010s and the Sunshine Coast and Ipswich in the 2020s.
The state team, known as the "Maroons" debuted in 1884 against New South Wales and has been competitive against that state and the Australian Capital Territory however played their last senior match in 1988. The side's poor record contributed to the popularity of representative football in other codes, particularly the Queensland Reds (union) and later the Queensland Maroons (league). Despite its historical record, the team won Section B national titles in 1974 and 1979. Zane Taylor holds the record for the number of representative caps for Queensland. The underage team has been more successful with 4 Division 2 titles at the National Championships, the most recent in 2015. The AFL wound up Queensland's senior representation in 1993 and underage titles in 2019 in favour of club academies.
The state has produced many great players. Erwin Dornau became the first born and raised Queenslander in the AFL in 1948. Jason Dunstall was the first Queenslander to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2002 and holds the AFL record of most goals for a Queenslander with 1254, the third highest tally in league history. Dunstall also holds the record AFL games for a player born and raised in the state (269) and was elevated to Legend status in 2024, the sole Queenslander to hold title. The state's 3 AFL Brownlow medallists include: Michael Voss, Jason Akermanis and Simon Black while these players were not both born and raised in the state all three are nonetheless multi-premiership players and Australian Football Hall of Famers. In the AFLW, the first Queensland born and raised player to win the league best and fairest is Ally Anderson (second Queenslander after Emily Bates) and shares the record for most games while Tayla Harris has the most goals.