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.
Eastern Suburbs Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in East Brisbane, Queensland. The club is the most centrally located of all the semi-professional clubs in Brisbane, situated approximately 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi) from the city centre. Easts competes in the National Premier Leagues Queensland, in both the men's and women's competitions, and play their home games at Heath Park, East Brisbane.
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.
The Queensland Australian Football League is an Australian rules football competition organised by the AFL Queensland, contested by clubs from South East Queensland.
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.
Zillmere Eagles Australian Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in the suburb of Zillmere in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. The team plays in the QAFA Division 4.
The Kenmore Australian Football Club, also known as the Kenmore Bears is an Australian rules football club formed as an offshoot of an older junior club which is notable as having produced Australian Football League players Mal Michael and Courtenay Dempsey. Other Australian rules football players Max Hudghton, Jackson Allen, Peter Yagmoor and Rex Liddy spent a significant amount of their junior careers at Kenmore's junior club.
There are several Australian rules football leagues in regional Queensland.
The Sherwood Magpies Australian Football Club is the senior Australian rules football club of the western suburbs of Brisbane which competes in Division One of the AFLQ State League. The club is based at McCarthy Homes Oval, 41 Chelmer st, Chelmer, at the same grounds as the Sherwood Junior Australian Football Club and fields a team in the AFLQ senior, reserve, under 18 and women's grade competitions.
The Kedron Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Kedron, Queensland.
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.
Surfers Paradise Australian Football Club is a Gold Coast based club competing in the AFL Queensland QAFL Australian rules football competition.
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).
Danny Craven is a former Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda and the Brisbane Bears in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/AFL).
The AFL Wide Bay is an amateur Australian rules football competition that was formerly known as the "Bundaberg-Wide Bay Australian Football League", which was formed in 1987 through the merger of the "Bundaberg Australian Football League" and "Wide Bay Australian Football League". The competition currently featured teams from the cities of Bundaberg, Maryborough and Hervey Bay.
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.
Maroochydore Australian Football Club is an Australian rules football club based at Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland which competes in AFL Queensland leagues in South East Queensland. Their men's team have been playing in the QAFL since 2020 and their women's team have been playing in the QAFLW since 2017.
Bond University AFL, nicknamed as the Bull Sharks, is a Gold Coast based Australian rules football club operating out of Bond University. The club currently competes in the Queensland Football Association Division Two and the Queensland Women's Football League competitions.
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.
