The Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL) 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 ...

competition organised by the

AFL Queensland AFL Queensland (AFLQ) is the governing body of Australian rules football in Queensland. AFL Queensland has over 216,000 participants (including Northern Rivers which is governed by AFLQ) playing at all levels of football from the introductory ...

, contested by clubs from

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. Th ...

. Previously known as the Queensland Football League (QFL), Queensland Australian National Football League (QANFL), Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL) and AFL Queensland State League (AFLQSL), the QAFL is the premier

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a conside ...

competition in Queensland. Since its inception, more than fifty teams have played in the premiership competition. The premier division currently features 12 teams from as far north from

Noosa The Shire of Noosa is a local government area about north of Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast district of South East Queensland, Australia. The shire covers an area of . It existed as a local government entity from 1910 until 2008, when it wa ...

on the

Sunshine Coast Sunshine Coast may refer to: * Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia **Sunshine Coast Region, a local government area of Queensland named after the region **Sunshine Coast Stadium * Sunshine Coast (British Columbia), geographic subregion of the Br ...

, throughout the

Brisbane Metropolitan Area Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the S ...

and as far south as Palm Beach on the Gold Coast near the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

border. The league is headquartered in Brisbane. However teams from the Gold Coast and the

have dominated the competition since 2015.

History

Prior to formation of the QFL, a precursor existed in the form of the Queensland Football Association (QFA) between 1880 to 1890. However poor alignment with the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

, a failure to secure intercolonial tests and its failure to rein in the popularity of rugby saw its ultimate demise. Following a decade long hiatus in the sport, Australian rules saw renewed interest during the

Federation of Australia The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western ...

and fans in Queensland at the turn of the century regrouped floating the idea of a new competition that would endure in the state. The Queensland Football League (QFL) was formed in July 1903 at a meeting with 50 present at the South Brisbane Cycling Club and a total of 150 signed on as members. Unlike the previous league which affiliated with the VFA, this new body decided to affiliate with the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

. Practice matches were held in August that year in the Botanical Gardens and attracted large crowds and interest. 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. StateLibQld 1 71683 Australian Football Premiership Finals, Brisbane, Queensland, 1907

StateLibQld 1 71683 Australian Football Premiership Finals, Brisbane, Queensland, 1907

From 1905 to 1914 games were regularly played at the

Brisbane Cricket Ground The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as the Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. The nickname Gabba derives from the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located. Over the years, the G ...

. Clubs included Brisbanes, Locomotives, Ipswich, Citys, Valleys and Wynnum. Between 1915 and 1919 the competition went into recess owing to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Since the inception of the QFL, more than fifty teams have played in the premiership competition. Brisbane_vs_Valleys_1923_from_The_Daily_Mail_29_August_1923

Brisbane_vs_Valleys_1923_from_The_Daily_Mail_29_August_1923

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) and football continued a steady growth in Brisbane. Taringa vs Wests Perry Park 1930s

In 1964 the QANFL dropped the 'National' reference to their name and became the Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL), a limited liability company. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the QAFL saw a boom in popularity, boosted by televised matches it saw crowds of 500 to several thousand attending blockbuster matches, modest in comparison to attendances drawn in traditional football states but significant nonetheless. The QAFL and the Gold Coast league both competed directly with the VFL for local marketshare in 1982.

Brisbane Bears VFL Licence and QAFL-Cronin Consortium

With its popularity increasing, the QAFL began to seek a VFL licence. In 1985 the QAFL had decided that pushing for a Melbourne-based club to relocate to Brisbane. However after several failed attempts to relocate Melbourne clubs including Fitzroy and

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

, it soon became evident that the VFL's preference was a new licence. In 1986 the QAFL formed a consortium with

Paul Cronin Paul Cronin (8 July 1938 – 13 September 2019) was an Australian actor who played roles in the Australian television series '' Matlock Police'' and ''The Sullivans''. He won the Silver Logie five times, including three years consecutively fr ...

for a new VFL licence and the consortium won its bid for a new Brisbane based club. However the QAFL fell out with the Christopher Skase backed Bears when the decision was made to base the new club at

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence. Its mot ...

on the Gold Coast instead of the QAFL's preferred venue, the

. The decision would begin a bitter and long protracted battle between the QAFL and the Bears which was not resolved until 1991. The admission of the Bears and the Gold Coast had a huge impact on the QAFL's crowds, with attendances falling from an average of 500 to just 50. Combined with the Bears poor on and off field performance the QAFL was severely weakened over the following years resulting in its voluntary liquidation in 1999.

2000: Restructure

In 2000 the QSFL was replaced by a new organisation, AFL Queensland (AFLQ). The new premiership competition was called the AFLQ State League.

Recent history

In November 2010 the

's Premier Division merged with

AFL Canberra AFL Canberra is the name of the local governing body for and premier competition of Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory (and the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales). It acts as an umbrella to several competitions b ...

to form the

North East Australian Football League The North East Australian Football League (NEAFL) was an Australian rules football league in New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The league was formed in November 2010, and its inaugural co ...

, featuring all of its previous teams as well as the

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 ...

and

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

reserve teams in the Northern Conference of the league. As a result, the QAFL was disbanded in favour of localised competitions throughout Queensland. The structural changes to the

(NEAFL) competition at the end of the 2013 season resulted in several clubs being relegated from the NEAFL, giving rise to a rebirth of the QAFL. As of 2014, there are 10 clubs who compete in the QAFL, most of which are based in

South-East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. Th ...

. After spending the 2021 season in the VFL, Aspley rejoined the QAFL in time for the 2022 season.

Venues

* 1904 – 1912: Queen's Park * 1905 – 1914:

Exhibition Ground Brisbane Showgrounds (formerly known as the Brisbane Exhibition Ground) is located at 600 Gregory Terrace, Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and was established in 1875. It hosts more than 250 events each year, with the largest bei ...

* 1920 – 1950s: Perry Park,

for some games, including the 1950 interstate carnival * 1959 – 1971:

* 1970s – 1980s:

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a association football, football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Li ...

Clubs

Current clubs (2022)

Club uniforms

Former clubs (
Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
)

* Ascot * Brisbane (1997–current) * Brisbane (1866–1887) * Brisbane (1920–1929) * City *

Coorparoo Coorparoo is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Coorparoo had a population of 16,282 people. Geography Coorparoo is by road south-east of the Brisbane GPO. It borders Camp Hill, Holland Park, Stones Corner, ...

* Kedron *

Locomotives A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

* Mayne * Norths * North Brisbane (See Zillmere) * Redland * Sandgate * Souths * South Brisbane *

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

Valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

* Windsor-Zillmere (See Zillmere) * West Brisbane * Western Districts * Workshops *

Yeronga Yeronga is a southern riverside suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Yeronga had a population of 6,535 people. Geography The suburb is bounded to the west and north by the Brisbane River and to the south-east by Ip ...

Zillmere Zillmere is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Zillmere had a population of 8,967 people. Geography As at 2008, Zillmere was approximately 60% residential and 40% industrial. History The Turrbal people occupie ...

Former clubs ( Gold Coast)

* Gold Coast *

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

Former clubs (
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
)

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

Former clubs (
Sunshine Coast Sunshine Coast may refer to: * Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia Sunshine Coast Region, a local government area of Queensland named after the region Sunshine Coast Stadium * Sunshine Coast (British Columbia), geographic subregion of the Br ...
)

Caloundra Caloundra ( ) is a coastal town and the southernmost town in the Sunshine Coast Region in South East Queensland, Australia. Geography Caloundra is north of the Brisbane central business district. Caloundra is accessible from Landsborough ...

Premierships

List of premiers

The complete list of premiers teams is detailed below: In 2010, the QAFL competition was disbanded and its teams became part of the NEAFL Northern conference.
In 2014, the QAFL competition resumed with several former clubs of the NEAFL being relegated to the competition along with several newly promoted teams.

List of premiers (All Grades)

The complete list of premiers teams in all grades is detailed below.

Premierships by club (seniors)

Premiership tallies for the top Queensland football division:QAFL premierships tallies
/ref> ;Notes

References

External links

AFL Queensland State website

Official Facebook
*
QAFF
– Queensland footy history group
Footynews Unofficial QAFL news and results
{{Aussie Rules in Queensland Australian rules football competitions in Queensland Sport on the Gold Coast, Queensland 1904 establishments in Australia Sports leagues established in 1904 Professional sports leagues in Australia