Some people believe that Australian Football - or AFL as it is known in the modern vernacular - arrived in Queensland in 1987 with the advent of the Brisbane Bears. Even more curious is the misconception that AFL in Brisbane started when the Bears relocated to the Gabba in 1993.
In fact, Queensland has a long and rich history of Australian Rules football stemming all the way back to the 1880’s. Indeed our indigenous game was established in Queensland prior to the arrival of the two rugby codes.
In the early 1900’s history notes that Brisbane Grammar travelled by boat up the Brisbane River to play Ipswich Grammar in a game of “Victorian Rules” as it was commonly referred to at the time. Mythology suggests that in 1901 the Brisbane Independent Schools headmasters took a vote to determine which football code would be adopted in the Independent Schools. Our game was defeated by 1 vote due partly no doubt to its reference as Victorian Rules.
The current Queensland Independent Schools Competition was initiated in 1991 and is now a well established quality boys' competition catering for over 120 teams and 3,000 participants from South East Queensland. In 2012, a new division will run in Term 2 for the Greater Public Schools, to cater for their numerous teams in response to a change in GPS sport timetabling.
