On the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australian rules football is a popular spectator and participation sport. Its origins as a senior sport in the region can be traced back to the Gold Coast Australian Football League (GCAFL), which was formed in 1961.
In 2009, the Gold Coast Suns were formed as part of the national expansion of the Australian Football League (AFL), which the club joined in 2011. The Suns plays their home matches at Carrara Stadium, which was redeveloped as part of its entry into the AFL to make it the second-largest stadium by capacity on the Gold Coast (behind Robina Stadium, which is primarily used for rugby league).
The Southport Sharks are the region's most successful club, winning 22 senior-grade men's premierships, including eight in the now-former GCAFL. Since 2021, its men's team has competed in the second-tier Victorian Football League (VFL). Four Gold Coast-based teams – Broadbeach, Labrador, Palm Beach Currumbin and Surfers Paradise – compete in the Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL); Southport and Bond University also compete in the QAFL Women's (QAFLW) competition.
History Gold Coast Australian Football League On 18 May 1961 the Gold Coast Australian Football League was established and four days later the first Australian rules football club on the Gold Coast was formed, Southport Australian Football Club. On 7 June it was revealed the team would be known as the Southport Magpies and would based at Owen Park. The team would also wear the black and white stripes similar to the Collingwood Football Club. In early June a second Gold Coast team was established in Palm Beach and was known as the Central Australian Football Club. On 25 June Southport would play their first game against the Central Football Club at Labrador Sports Reserve. The magpies would come out victorious by 11 points. The game attracts so much attention that a second game was scheduled for 9 July and would be played in Palm Beach and the Centrals would win the second game by 25 points. A third game between the two clubs was played on 23 July and Southport were comfortable winners by 39 points.
The season was temporarily interrupted when a Gold Coast representative side was scheduled to play the Royal Australian Navy team in Palm Beach on 16 August. The Gold Coast team, who were captained by Southport player Ken McDonald, beat the Navy side by 5 points. In August Ipswich had entered the Gold Coast Australian Football League and matches between the three clubs occurred. An inter-district game between Southport and the Ipswich Football Club was scheduled on 25 September at Labrador Sports Ground and was considered the first Gold Coast Australian Football League Grand Final. Southport would claim victory by 13 points to win their first premiership.
Senior football on the Gold Coast became stagnant in 1962 as the Southport Magpies struggled to find any local opposition. The Central Football club had rebranded to Coolangatta at the beginning of the season but faltered and become the Currumbin Australian Football Club by the end of the season. Southport was largely instrumental in the creation of the Surfers Paradise Australian Football Club but the club also failed to become resourceful enough to compete. In an attempt to grow the code, Southport scheduled several showcase matches against Brisbane-based QANFL clubs Enoggera, Mayne, Morningside and University. A junior competition was also started in 1962 and in a stark difference to the senior competition the junior and schools competition enjoyed immense success. The junior competition was such a success that the local paper the South Coast Bulletin would often report on junior matches rather than senior matches. With only two senior clubs based on the Gold Coast, the GCAFL Grand Final was contested between Southport and Currumbin with the Magpies claiming their second consecutive premiership by 53 points.
Premiers Gold Coast AFL (1961–1996) / AFLQ - Gold Coast Division (1997–1999)
1961: Southport 1962: Southport 1963: Surfers Paradise 1964: Southport 1965: Palm Beach/Currumbin 1966: Southport 1967: Surfers Paradise 1968: Surfers Paradise 1969: Surfers Paradise 1970: Labrador 1971: Palm Beach/Currumbin 1972: Surfers Paradise 1973: Palm Beach/Currumbin 1974: Surfers Paradise 1975: Southport 1976: Southport 1977: Southport 1978: Coolangatta 1979: Southport 1980: Southport 1981: Coolangatta 1982: Coolangatta 1983: Coolangatta 1984: Surfers Paradise 1985: Palm Beach/Currumbin 1986: Labrador 1987: Broadbeach 1988: Coolangatta 1989: Coolangatta 1990: Surfers Paradise 1991: Labrador 1992: Surfers Paradise 1993: Labrador 1994: Labrador 1995: Palm Beach/Currumbin 1996: Broadbeach 1997: Palm Beach/Currumbin 1998: Surfers Paradise 1999: Palm Beach Currumbin
Southport accepted into the QAFL Following a year and a half of applications, Southport would be accepted into the Queensland Australian Football League in 1983. Entry into the league caused a problem with both Southport and the Western Magpies, who shared mascots and guernseys. Southport would rebrand from their Magpies moniker to the Southport Sharks. The Brisbane clubs in the QAFL had long seen the Gold Coast as a lesser competition and weren't expecting Southport to achieve much in the Brisbane-based league. However, the Sharks would send shock waves through the competition when they claimed the QAFL premiership in their debut season with a victory over the Morningside Australian Football Club in the Grand Final. Southport President Dr Alan McKenzie did not miss the opportunity to let the Brisbane clubs know how they felt declaring "For too long Brisbane people have denigrated Gold Coast football. Our win just shows how strong Coast footy is". Meanwhile, in the GCAFL, Coolangatta recorded their third consecutive premiership.
The following season saw Southport struggle to hold on to their premiership players from the previous year and would only retain eleven for the 1984 season. Troubles would transfer to their on field performances as the team lost their first four games of the season. Following a match against Coorparoo in which future VFL player Jason Dunstall starred, the Sharks would win twelve consecutive matches before being eliminated by Morningside in the preliminary final. Once again determined to prove to the Brisbane clubs that Gold Coast football was not a joke, the Sharks would set their eyes on premiership glory again in 1985. Throughout the home and away season the Sharks would only be defeated two times and would reach the Grand Final with a 27-point victory over Mayne in the Major Semifinal. Two weeks later the Sharks would again face Mayne in the Grand Final and with a minute to go, Southport full-forward Glen Middlemiss would kick a goal that would seal a three-point victory. The Sharks would also do the QAFL sweep that season with their reserves and colts teams claiming their respective premierships as well as the senior team winning the midweek Championship.
Southport began the 1986 season with a bang by signing Brownlow Medal winning ruckman Gary Dempsey in an attempt to cover some of the players they had lost. The move would prove successful with the Sharks reaching a second consecutive Grand Final. Despite defeating Coorparoo by 98 points two weeks prior to the Grand Final, the Sharks would fall in the premiership decider by ten points. Unbeknownst to the Sharks, the Gold Coast was about to receive its own VFL football club in 1987.
Bears based at Carrara In 1986 the Victorian Football League Commission announced plans to introduce privately owned clubs in Brisbane and Perth. The Brisbane license was awarded to a consortium headed by former actor Paul Cronin and bankrolled by entrepreneur Christopher Skase. It was expected that the newly formed Brisbane Football Club would be based at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, however Skase had other plans for the team. Skase opted for the team to be based out of Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast and nicknamed the team the 'Bears'. He justified the decision by pointing out that Carrara possessed a ground the same size as the Melbourne Cricket Ground while the Brisbane Cricket Ground had a greyhound track surrounding the field and wasn't suitable for football.
The Bears struggled to attract the interest of high-profile players to join the team for their inaugural season. Billionaire owner Skase decided to open the chequebook and the Bears were able to acquire the services of 1985 Brownlow Medalist Brad Hardie and Collingwood captain Mark Williams. After winning two of their first three away games of the 1987 season, the followers in Queensland were optimistic about the club's future in the lead up to their first home game. The Bears would play their first home game at Carrara Stadium against the Fitzroy Lions in front of a sell out crowd of 17,795.
The Fitzroy Lions would win the encounter by fifteen points. In 1989 the Brisbane Bears and the Albert Shire Council signed off on a 30-year lease for the ground with an option for a further 10 years. Later that year on 15 July the Bears hosted the first ever night match at Carrara against the Geelong Cats in front of a then record crowd of 18,198.
Bears move and the impact Insufficient public transport to and from the stadium, as well as the poor on field performance of the Bears, resulted in low crowds at the Bears games and prompted the local media to refer to it as the Curse of Carrara as well as labeling the team the Carrara Koalas or the Bad News Bears. The new owner of the Bears, Reuben Pelerman, would lose a further $10 million between the 1990–1992 AFL seasons. Despite local fans disagreeing with CEO Andrew Ireland,Sydney Swans CEO Andrew Ireland: A Life in Footy the ever-increasing problems with Carrara Stadium would lead to the Brisbane Bears permanently moving north to the Brisbane Cricket Ground for the 1993 AFL season.
Sharks bid to enter the AFL Although interest in the sport had waned on the Gold Coast during the years the Bears were based at Carrara, the Southport Sharks continued to stamp their authority in the QAFL as a powerhouse club. Eight consecutive Grand Finals between 1986 and 1993 showed the club's consistency with premierships years coming in 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1992.
In 1996 the Southport Sharks began bidding for acceptance into the Australian Football League. At the conclusion of the 1996 AFL season it was announced the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy Lions would merge, leaving a sixteenth spot in the AFL open. The AFL decided to hand the open license to the Port Adelaide Football Club and in the process rejected Southport's bid. Now on a mission to prove the AFL made the wrong decision by not granting them a license, the Sharks would win four consecutive QAFL premierships between 1997 and 2000. This led to the AFL Chief Executive Wayne Jackson stating "I was left with the indelible impression that if ever there was another side outside of a capital, no one else would be in as strong a position as Southport to compete for that. There was nothing like the vibrancy surrounding the Gold Coast. They were the standout (state league) club anywhere around Australia".
GCAFL absorbed by QAFL Following the 1996 GCAFL season the league was absorbed by the QAFL state league and created a Gold Coast division for the clubs. In 2000 the Gold Coast division was abolished and teams were assigned to different QAFL divisions according to the strength of each club. Broadbeach and Labrador were admitted into the top division while Burleigh, Coolangatta-Tweed Heads, Palm Beach Currumbin and Surfers Paradise were placed in the second division. Although other Gold Coast clubs had joined the QAFL the Southport Sharks would continue to prove themselves as the Gold Coast's powerhouse club with five consecutive QAFL Grand Final showings between 2004 and 2008, claiming premierships in 2005, 2006 and 2008.