Australian rules football in Queensland was the first official football code played in 1866. The Colony of Queensland was the second after Victoria to adopt Australian rules football, just days after the rules were widely published. For two decades it was the most popular football code, however a strong desire for representative football success saw Queenslanders favour British football variants for more than a century. As a result, Queensland is one of the two states to the east of the Australian cultural divide described as the Barassi Line. 120 years later in 1986 Queensland was the first state awarded a licence to have a club, the Brisbane Bears, in the national (AFL) competition, also its first privately owned club. However the Gold Coast based Bears had a detrimental effect until the 1993 redevelopment of the Brisbane Cricket Ground (Gabba). In contrast the Bears transformation into a Brisbane and traditional membership based club resulted in enormous growth, and a tripling of average AFL attendances by 1996.
AFL Darling Downs is an Australian rules football competition based in the Darling Downs region of Queensland including its major city of Toowoomba. The competition was formed as the Darling Downs Australian Football League in 1971. The senior representative team is known as the Demons and wear guernseys modelled on the Melbourne Demons guernseys. The competition has one senior grade.
Australian rules football in South East Queensland has a varied history and many changes were made especially in the 21st century. Ruled and organised by the AFL Queensland, the region had a total of 46 teams playing in different divisions.
The Queensland Australian Football League is an Australian rules football competition organised by the AFL Queensland, contested by clubs from South East Queensland.
The Summerland Australian Football League or SAFL was an Australian rules football competition in the Northern Rivers and New England region of New South Wales, Australia, in existence from 1984 to 2011. It now is reformed under the AFL Queensland banner under various QFA divisions, currently QFA Division 2 South/Northern Rivers.
The Southport Australian Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks, is an Australian rules football club based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, that competes in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
The University of Queensland Australian Football Club (UQAFC) is an amateur Australian rules football club playing in the QFA Division 1, Division 4 and QAFLW League competitions, overseen by AFL Queensland. UQAFC home games are played at the University of Queensland's Playing Field 2, on the corner of Sir William MacGregor Drive and Thynne Road, St Lucia, Brisbane.
Mayne Australian Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in the Brisbane suburb of Enoggera. The club colours are black and gold and they are nicknamed the Tigers.
The Kedron Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Kedron, Queensland.
Rugby union in Queensland has traditionally been one of the most popular professional and recreational team sports in the state. Rugby union was introduced in the British colony's capital Brisbane in 1876. Initially it struggled to gain a foothold due to the popularity of Australian rules there until it got its break in 1882 with the first inter-colonial matches against New South Wales, and the formation of the Northern Rugby Union. Between 1885 and 1887 it became the dominant code after the leading schools association decided to play it exclusively and after 1890 spread virtually unopposed throughout the colony.
The Aspley Football Club, nicknamed the Hornets, is an Australian rules football club based in the northern-Brisbane suburb of Aspley. The club competes in multiple Queensland-based competitions, including in the Queensland Australian Football League, Division 1 of the Queensland Football Association, the Queensland AFL Women's League, and several underage competitions for boys and girls. The senior men's team has in the past competed in second-tier state league competitions, notably the North East Australian Football League from 2011 to 2020 and the Victorian Football League in 2021.
The Yeronga South Brisbane Football Club, often known simply as Yeronga and nicknamed the Devils, is an Australian rules football club that plays in Division 2 of the Queensland Football Association (QFA) men's leagues and in the AFL Queensland Women's League (QAFLW). The club has previously competed in the Queensland Australian National Football League (QANFL).
Coomera Australian Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Gold Coast, Queensland. The team currently competes in the QFA South league.
South East Australian Football Club is a Brisbane based club competing in the Queensland Amateur Football Association 'A' competition fielding Seniors & Reserves teams. Previously they were known as the Logan City Australian Football Club.
Caloundra Australian Football Club is an Australian rules football club that is based in Caloundra, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. It competes in the QFA Division 1.
Tweed Coast Football Club, nicknamed Tigers, is an Australian rules football club based on the Tweed Coast in northern New South Wales. The team currently competes in the Queensland Football Association Division 2 South.
Australian rules football on the Gold Coast, Queensland can be traced back to the Gold Coast Australian Football League that was established in 1961. The city's interest in the sport has been heavily linked to the Southport Australian Football Club, the Brisbane Football Club and more recently the Gold Coast Football Club. The highest form of the sport played on the Gold Coast is the Australian Football League's team the Gold Coast Football Club, who were admitted into the competition in 2011.
The Queensland Football Association Northern Rivers was an Australian rules football competition containing four clubs based in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales and the southern area of the Gold Coast in Queensland. The league was initially known as the Summerland Australian Football League and was established in 1984 as a New South Wales-only competition involving clubs from Ballina, Byron Bay, Goonellabah and Lismore. The competition saw several clubs from the regions of the Northern Rivers, New England and the Mid North Coast come and go between the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2010 the league allowed entry to its first Queensland-based team, Coolangatta-Tweed Heads. In 2012 the remaining clubs joined the AFL Queensland umbrella and rebranded to the QAFA (B) South.
Kalinda Howarth is an Australian rules footballer with the Collingwood Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She was previously listed at the Brisbane Lions in 2018 and played for the Gold Coast Suns from 2020 to 2023. Howarth is a dual Gold Coast leading goalkicker and was named in the 2020 AFL Women's All-Australian team.
Jessika Elliston is an Australian rugby league footballer who plays for the Gold Coast Titans Women in the NRL Women's Premiership and the Tweed Heads Seagulls in the QRL Women's Premiership.
