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Townsville Kern United is the predecessor of the current North Queensland Football Federation (NQFF) State Premier League team, the North Queensland Razorbacks. Townsville Kern United formed in the late seventies and ran until 1982.
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Townsville Kern United is the predecessor of the current North Queensland Football Federation (NQFF) State Premier League team, the North Queensland Razorbacks. Townsville Kern United formed in the late seventies and ran until 1982.
Townsville Kern United enjoyed success in the state competition during the 1980s, producing much local talent. This is often considered the glory days of football in North Queensland, where each home game attracted attendances of up to 10,000 spectators at the Townsville Sports Reserve.[ citation needed ] In 1982 they won both the Queensland State league and Ampol State cup. The only state club side to achieve the double. The club colours were yellow shirts and Royal Navy blue shorts with the club sponsor "Kern" a local building company blazoned across the chest. All home games were played on a Saturday evening attracting much support from the locals, with back page headlines in the Townsville Bulletin often the norm whenever they played. The code was extremely well supported, more so than most National Soccer League (NSL) teams of that era.
Townsville Kern United also managed to attract several high-profile players, such as Paul Wormley, who had previously played professional football in England for Barnsley. Allan Clarke the famous Leeds and England striker of the 70's appeared as a guest player for the club in 1981.
The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL).
The Adelaide Rams was an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super League competition in 1997 and the second in the first season of the National Rugby League (NRL) in 1998. The Rams were not a successful club, winning only 13 out of 42 games. However crowd numbers in the first season were the fifth highest of any first-grade club that year, but dwindled to sixteenth in the second season. The Adelaide club was shut down at the end of the 1998 season as a result of poor on-field performances, dwindling crowd numbers, financial losses and a reduction in the number of teams in the NRL. They remain the only team from the state of South Australia to have participated in top-level rugby league in Australia.
The Brisbane Rugby League premiership was a rugby league football competition in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first held in 1922 and for every year until 1997. The competition was reinstated in 2001, known as the FOGS premiership under the Queensland Cup. The competition consists of Brisbane's top six rugby league clubs. Each participating team is a feeder club for the Queensland Cup.
South Queensland Crushers was an Australian rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. In 1992 it was decided that the team would be admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League competition, along with three other teams, as part of the League's expansion plans for professional rugby league in Australia. The competition was re-branded the Australian Rugby League competition in 1995, which was the Crushers' first season.
Soccer was first played in Queensland on a regular basis in Brisbane, in 1884. The game in Queensland is administered by the peak body, Football Queensland, together with several subordinate zone councils, each representing regions of Queensland.
The Willows Sports Complex was a grass football stadium situated in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was used predominantly as a rugby league ground as the home ground of the North Queensland Cowboys National Rugby League club. The ground was also used for rugby union and soccer. From 2009 to 2011, A-League football club North Queensland Fury called it home.
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. It is governed by AFL Queensland which coordinates 11 club competitions distributed across the state.
AFL Townsville is an amateur competition formed as the Townsville Australian Football League in 1955, the first contemporary AFL competition to be formed outside of the South East Queensland. It is based in the city of Townsville. For a short period in the 1980s, the competition was played during the summer months. The representative team is known as the Eagles and they wear similar guernseys to the Zillmere Eagles' old white and blue guernseys.
Laurie Joseph Spina is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and rugby league commentator. In 1995, Spina was the inaugural captain of the North Queensland Cowboys.
Gene Miles is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. An Australian international and Queensland State of Origin representative centre, he played his club football in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership before joining the Brisbane Broncos in 1988 and later captained in 1990.
Greg Ian Dowling is an Australian former politician and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. An Australian international and Queensland State of Origin representative prop forward, he played his club football mostly in Brisbane with a spell playing for English club, Wigan.
The history of the North Queensland Cowboys goes back to 1995 when they were admitted to the Australian Rugby League Premiership.
There are several Australian rules football leagues in regional Queensland.
Jarrod Harbrow is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Paul Wormley is a former English professional footballer.
Northern Fury Football Club was an Australian professional soccer club based in Townsville, Queensland. The club was founded in 2008 and competed in the A-League under the name North Queensland Fury. On 1 March 2011, the club was removed from the league due to financial instability. On 3 October 2012, the club officially re-formed after it was granted a licence to participate in the National Premier League Queensland. After rebranding themselves as "North Queensland United" in 2017, the club disbanded a second time at the end of the 2018 Football Queensland season. The club played their home fixtures at Townsville Sports Reserve.
Rugby league in Queensland is the most watched winter sport in the state and the second most participated football code after soccer. Rugby league was introduced in 1908 and within just a few years it surpassed rugby union there to become the most popular football code as players switched to play professionally in the Queensland Rugby League. In the 1920s, Queenslanders began leaving to play professionally in the New South Wales Rugby League which became a more popular competition. However Queensland maintained a strong rugby league culture, with the state continuing to perform well in interstate rugby league. The later advent of the State of Origin series ensured that players would return to represent their state.
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The National Premier League Queensland, run by Football Queensland, is the top tier state-level soccer competition in Queensland. The conference is a sub division of the National Premier Leagues. The inaugural season kicked off in March 2013 and consisted of 12 teams. Each team will be expected to field a senior team, five junior men's teams from under-12 to under-20 starting in 2013 and women's junior teams in under-13, under-15, and under-17 starting in 2014.
The Townsville & Districts Blackhawks are an Australian semi-professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. The club was admitted to the Queensland Cup in September 2014, first competing in the 2015 season. The side plays their home games at Jack Manski Oval.