Australian rules football in Queensland
| Australian rules football in Queensland | |
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| Governing body | AFL Queensland |
| Representative team | Queensland |
| First played | June 1866, Brisbane |
| Registered players | 180,132 (total) |
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Club competitions
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Audience records
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| Single match | 37,224 (2005). AFL Brisbane Lions vs Collingwood (Gabba, Brisbane) |
Australian rules football in Queensland has a history which dates back to the mid-1860s. By the early 1880s it was the most prominent football code in the state, but was progressively overtaken by the Rugby code, resulting in the local game disbanding in the early 1890s. The sport was revived in the early 1900s and continued to be played throughout the twentieth century, despite the majority of the state being considered for much of the century to be well behind the Barassi Line (the notional line dividing Australia into Australian rules and Rugby 'territories').
Australian rules football's continued surge in popularity in south east Queensland is most likely due to the continued success of the Brisbane Lions in the national Australian Football League (AFL) competition, combined with the AFL's financial support for the local game. That support saw the introduction of a second AFL club in Queensland, the Gold Coast Suns in 2011.
In Queensland, the sport is typically referred to as "AFL", or less frequently "Australian Football", "Aussie Rules" or "Australian Rules".
The earliest known record of Australian rules football commencing in Queensland was in May 1866, when the Brisbane Football Club was formed, with the aim of keeping cricketers fit in the winter months. The club played its first match on Saturday 9 June 1866 at Queen's Park (now part of the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens). By 1870 four more clubs had been created: Volunteer Artillery, Brisbane Grammar School, Civil Service and Ipswich, all adopting Victorian Rules over rugby football.
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