The Morningside Australian Football Club, also known as the Morningside Panthers, is an
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
club based at Jack Esplen Oval in the suburb of
Hawthorne
Hawthorne often refers to the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Hawthorne may also refer to:
Places
Australia
*Hawthorne, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane
Canada
* Hawthorne Village, Ontario, a suburb of Milton, Ontario
United States
* Hawt ...
in Brisbane. The club consists of Masters, Amateurs, Women's, Junior and Senior football sections.
Its senior team competed in the North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) competition from 2011 to 2013 and now is a member club of the Queensland Australian Football League.2014 QAFL clubs /ref> Its junior sides compete in the AFL Brisbane Juniors (AFLBJ) competition. The club also caters for young girls and boys by running Auskick skills clinics, which are held at the beginning of the season and do not involve competitive games.
Morningside Football Club has operated successfully as a football club in Brisbane for over 50 years and is one of the most widely recognised Queensland based AFL clubs within Australia. It developed from the Hawthorne Juniors club which was founded in 1931.
Recent history
At the beginning of the 2000 season the members of both clubs voted unanimously to join and form one united club. This decision was made to strengthen the club socially, financially and to improve the junior player development programmes and created a player path to the elite AFLQ State League competition.
Morningside has provided some of the best Queensland-bred Australian rules footballers of the last 50 years, including triple-premiership winning Brisbane Lions captain Michael Voss and his teammate fullback
Mal Michael
Malcolm Robert Michael (born 24 June 1977) is a Papua New Guinean-born former Australian rules footballer. He is notable for his successful professional career in the Australian Football League. In a career spanning 238 games and three clubs ...
, Voss's brother
Brett Voss
Brett Charles Voss (born 22 February 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Brisbane Lions and the St Kilda Football Club.
He was drafted by the Brisbane Bears as a zone selection in 1995. Voss, now with the Lions, m ...
(who played at Brisbane and St Kilda). Current players include dashing half-back
Courtenay Dempsey
Courtenay Dempsey (born 28 August 1987) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Early life
Dempsey was born in Mount IsaDavid Armitage of St Kilda and recently debuted Tom Bell of Carlton, nicknamed the next "Kouta" referring to Blues legend Anthony Koutoufides.
At the beginning of 2011, the QAFL was merged to form the "North-East Australian Football League", combining Sydney and Canberra teams with the best QAFL teams, including the
Northern Territory Thunder
Northern Territory Football Club, nicknamed NT Thunder, was a Northern Territory-based Australian rules football club that competed in the North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) between 2011 and 2019. It also competed in the VFL Women's in ...
,
Gold Coast Suns
The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara.
The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...
, GWS and
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...
reserves team all compete in the competition as well as the Brisbane Lions reserves. There are two conferences with Morningside playing in the Northern Conference alongside fellow rivals Mt Gravat and Southport, among others.
In the NEAFL's inaugural year, Morningside played Northern Territory in the Northern Conference Final, in which they were beaten by 87 points. Northern Territory went on to beat Eastern champion Ainslie.
The Grogan Medal is awarded to the best and fairest player in an AFLQ season.
*Noel McGuinness 1953
*Henry Maguire 1955
*Keith Farnsworth 1957
* Merv Dihm 1960
*Terry Johnston 1967
*Jeff Ebert 1974
* John Blair 1982
*
Daryl Bourke
Daryl Bourke (born 7 April 1965) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1980s.
A centreman, Bourke played nine games in each of his two seasons at Melbourne. He then j ...
*Gary Jones (114) – 1974
*Gary Jones (124) – 1975
*Gary Jones (142) – 1976
*J. Newton (81) – 1979
* J. Blair (86) – 1985
*J. Manson (106) – 1986
*Darren Vickery (95) – 1989
*Darren Vickery (117) – 1990
*Darren Vickery (100) – 1991
*Darren Vickery (81) – 1992
*M. Russell (83) – 1994
*M. Russell (105) – 1995
*M. Russell (101) – 1997
*Matthew Hammelmann (34) – 2020
AFL/VFL players
There is a list of past and present Morningside players who have played at
AFL
AFL may refer to:
Sports
* American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues:
** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
/VFL:
*
Jackson Allen
Jackson Allen (born 14 April 1993) is a former professional Australian rules football player at the Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
He was recruited by the club in the 2011 National Draft, with pick #91, as ...
(Gold Coast)
* David Armitage (St. Kilda)
* Tom Bell (Carlton and Brisbane Lions)
* John Blair (South Melbourne, Fitzroy and St. Kilda)
*
Daryl Bourke
Daryl Bourke (born 7 April 1965) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1980s.
A centreman, Bourke played nine games in each of his two seasons at Melbourne. He then j ...
Scott Clouston
Scott Clouston (born 2 February 1987) is an Australian rules footballer who played with the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Clouston was recruited from Morningside but also played for the University of Queensland. Take ...
(Brisbane Lions)
*
Keidean Coleman
Keidean Coleman ( ; born 31 March 2000) is an Australian rules football, Australian rules footballer who plays for the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Early life
Coleman was born in Katherine, Northern Territory to a fa ...
Courtenay Dempsey
Courtenay Dempsey (born 28 August 1987) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Early life
Dempsey was born in Mount IsaBarry Denny (Melbourne)
* Terry Devery (Footscray)
* Merv Dihm (St. Kilda)
* Brad Edwards (Fitzroy and Brisbane Bears)
* Matthew Hammelmann (Brisbane Lions)
* Scott Harding (Brisbane Lions and Port Adelaide)
*
Jack Henry
John or Jack Henry may refer to:
*John Henry (folklore), the folklore character and subject of eponymous ballad
People
Politicians
*John Henry, Margrave of Moravia (1322–1375), Royal family member of the Holy Roman Empire
*John Henry (Maryl ...
Mal Michael
Malcolm Robert Michael (born 24 June 1977) is a Papua New Guinean-born former Australian rules footballer. He is notable for his successful professional career in the Australian Football League. In a career spanning 238 games and three clubs ...
(Collingwood, Brisbane Lions and Essendon)
*
Rick Norman
Rick Norman (born 25 July 1963) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with North Melbourne and the Brisbane Bears in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
A former Noble Park player, Norman made his league debut against Collingwoo ...
(North Melbourne and Brisbane Bears)
*
Paul Peos
Paul Peos (born 28 January 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears in the Australian Football League (AFL), and East Perth in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Peos is o ...
(West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears)
* Tony Smith (Sydney Swans)
*
Lee Spurr
Lee Spurr (born 27 July 1987) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He an experienced utility player who played in two premierships for Central District in t ...
Gavin Urquhart
Gavin Urquhart (born 18 May 1988) is an Australian rules football player, who last played for North Melbourne Football Club.
Uruquart was born in Mackay, Queensland and raised in Rockhampton where he played his junior football with the Glenmor ...
(North Melbourne)
*
Brett Voss
Brett Charles Voss (born 22 February 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Brisbane Lions and the St Kilda Football Club.
He was drafted by the Brisbane Bears as a zone selection in 1995. Voss, now with the Lions, m ...
John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...
Peter Yagmoor
Peter Yagmoor (born 20 October 1993) is a former Australian rules football player.
Early life
Yagmoor was born and raised in Cairns, his Lebanese and Indigenous Australian father moved there from Melbourne where he met his mother. He played h ...