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HISTORY Early Beginnings in South East Queensland Australian Rules was first played in Queensland in , Civil Service and Ipswich . Although Australian rules was the most popular football code in Queensland by 1880 , by the 1890s it had been overtaken by Rugby Union . The game was revived when the Queensland Football League (QFL) was formed in July 1903 . The first premiership was held in 1904 with most games being played at Queen's Park, a sporting facility within the grounds of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. From 1905 to 1914 games were regularly played at the Brisbane Cricket Ground . Queensland sent delegates to the Intercolonial Football Conferences in 1883 and 1908. At the time Queensland had over 300 teams. In 1884 Ipswich defeated a touring Essendon team. Brisbane Grammar played matches against Ipswich Grammar in “Victorian Rules”. Independent Schools headmasters later voted by 1 vote to adopt rugby (due to the reference of Victorian Rules). The premiership has been held every year from 1904, with the exception of the period from 1915 to 1919 when the competition went into recess owing to World War I. Since the inception of the QFL, more than fifty teams have played in the premiership competition. In August 1927 at a meeting of the Australian National Football Council it was decided that each of the state leagues were to include the words 'Australian National' in their names. Accordingly the QFL was renamed the Queensland Australian National Football League (QANFL). 1950s and 60s - The Game Expands outside South East Queensland In 1952, the Brisbane Exhibition Ground hosted a VFL match between Essendon and Geelong and was the first official VFL match to be played under floodlights. Aussie Rules was introduced to Far North Queensland in the 1950s. In 1957 land was purchased in Cairns for the first dedicated field and by 1958 a junior competition had begun. Shortly later leagues were introduced to Townsville and Mount Isa . A VFL exhibition game was played at the Brisbane Cricket Ground in 1959, attracting a large crowd. In 1964 the QANFL became the Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL), a limited liability company. In the 1960s, the first leagues appeared in Mackay , the Darling Downs and Rockhampton . 1980s - The Brisbane Bears Years In 1986 it was announced that teams from Brisbane ( Brisbane Bears ) and Perth ( West Coast Eagles ) would compete in the Victorian Football League (VFL) from 1987 . This had a deletrious effect on the QAFL which weakened over the following years. After the 1996 season, the QAFL went into receivership. A new governing body, the Queensland Australian Football Council, was formed in 1997 , alongside a new premiership competition, Queensland State Football League (QSFL). The Bears were hugely unsuccessful on the field, and with the admission of the successful Brisbane Broncos Rugby League team into the New South Wales Rugby League , the popularity of Australian Rules Football plummeted. During the 1980s and 1990s, demographic trends of Victorian and South Australians (states where the code is extremely popular) migrating interstate in large numbers to Queensland. Support for Australian Rules Football grew, despite a lack of success from the Bears and support from fans. In 1993, the Brisbane Bears moved from Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast to the Brisbane Cricket Ground. Interest, crowds and membership in the team increased considerably. In 1995, the Bears made the AFL finals for the first time. In 1996, six sell-out games at the Gabba caused the State Government to consider funding re-development of the ground, something that would be done several times over the following years to transform the small stadium into a world class venue. Boom Times - Brisbane Lions Era The Brisbane Lions began in 1996, when the AFL approved a merger between the Brisbane Bears and the formerly Melbourne based Fitzroy Football Club and on-field success increased substantially with the injection of Fitzroy players, further boosting the popularity of the code. In a breakthrough for Australian Football in late 1990s, GPS schools in South East Queensland began playing Australian Rules for the first time since the turn of the century. Previously to this, South East Queensland private schools had been staunchly Rugby Union stronghold since 1908. The Jason Dunstall Cup (named after champion Queensland product Jason Dunstall ) was later began, with independent schools such as BBC, ACGS, Nudgee College, Marist Brothers Ashgrove and Gregory Terrace represented with teams in the first division. The schools league is now called '' AFLQ School Football ''. Also in the 1990s, the Cairns league experienced enormous growth financially on the back of gaming, with the Cazaly's social club quickly became the largest sporting club north of Brisbane. The Cazaly's Stadium got lights to play popular night football games and the western stand from the Gabba was transplanted to Cazaly's Stadium , enabling it to host AFL matches. In 1999 , the QSFL also went into voluntary liquidation being replaced. Another new organisation, AFL Queensland (AFLQ), was formed in 2000 . The new premiership competition was called the AFLQ State League. In 2001, a Women's Footy competition began in earnest. Three successive premierships for the Brisbane Lions in 2001, 2002 and 2003 saw crowds to Australian Football League matches in Brisbane to grow to an average of over 30,000, and in terms of attendance and membership, the AFL team in 2003 was the most popular team of any football code in the state. However despite increasing television ratings and media exposure, Australian Rules Football remains overall less popular as either Rugby League or Rugby Union in the state. During the Lions premiership years, junior Aussie Rules numbers exploded in South East Queensland, and grew solidly right across the state. Recent History The and Essendon drew a surprise audience of 16,591. In response, the Australian Football League has stepped up efforts to expand into the Gold Coast market, with a series of games scheduled for the Gold Coast in 2006. The AFL announced intentions to include a side in the next 5 years, whilst a rugby league side, the Gold Coast Titans was admitted to the National Rugby League competition in 2007 in response to competition in the Gold Coast market. From 2005 , the growing local State League expanded to two divisions. Although state league crowds have dwindled with the increase in support for the Brisbane Lions AFL team, a healthy crowd of 3,257 saw the Southport Sharks defeat Morningside in the 2005 AFLQ Grand Final at the Gabba. PRINCIPAL VENUES
SOURCES # ''John Morton's Queensland Australian Rules Year Book 1960'' by John Morton, 1960 # ''Queensland Team of the Century Football Record Official Programme'', AFL Queensland, 2003 # ''Official Souvenir Programme of Collingwood v South Melbourne'', Queensland Australian National Football League, 1935 SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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