West Townsville 69.26.440 (v Hermit Park 1.1.7) – 1992
Most goals in a game
27 – Steve Mazey – West Townsville vs Northern Beaches – 1999
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. AFL Townsville runs a men's competition with seniors and reserves divisions, as well as a women's and junior competitions.
History
Early matches in Townsville
A Townsville representative team travelled to Cairns in 1884 to play one of the earliest recorded matches in Far North Queensland.[1] It is not known how long the Townsville team began playing prior to this.
Australian Football is recorded to have been played regularly in Townsville in 1886.[2]
The game was short-lived in Far North Queensland as shortly following the folding of the governing body, the Queensland Football AssociationRugby Union grew rapidly in popularity across the north of the state with new clubs being formed in areas where the QFA clubs has been and players switching codes.
During World War I in 1942 and 1943, several matches were played among service teams.[3][4] A league briefly existed including teams RAAF, Cavalry, Army and Essential Services.[5] However support soon petered out.[6]
Townsville Australian Football League
The current league was launched with three teams, RAAF, Hermit Park and South Townsville in 1954, after a series of exhibition matches were played at RAAF Oval and Gill Park and an exhibition game at the Townsville Showgrounds. All clubs were founded with juniors.
The Garbutt club was formed in 1956. In 1961, Currajong replaced the RAAF who withdrew due to a struggle for numbers.
Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War led to the Army entering the scene in 1968 when 6 RAR and a revived RAAF side expanded the league to 6 teams.
The Wulguru club was established in 1968 and entered senior sides, bringing the league up to seven teams. As Australia's involvement in Vietnam wound down, the Army withdrew. The competition remained with six sides from 1976 to 1982 until a team from Burdekin increased the numbers to seven in 1983. Burdekin, made up of converted rugby players, had almost no support apart from the management of the Delta Hotel. The demise of Wulguru followed in early 1984 when the league made a decision with significant consequences. Four seasons of summer football followed, and while the “Darwin” seasons attracted some top players, junior development was stifled.
Currajong in 1990 swallowed up a penniless Townsville Swans, who had switched from South Townsville in June 1982 to become the Curra Swans. The nomination of the Hawks club in 1989 caused a stir due to the number of current players recruited from Hermit Park, Currajong and South Townsville using suspect overtures [dubious – discuss], although be that as it may the club were premiers by a point in their first season.
The league lost three teams in 1989 and the following year only Hermit Park, West Townsville, Curra Swans, and the University Hawks remained.
In 1999, the Northern Beaches Lions entered the TAFL in an attempt to expand the shattered league. Unfortunately, they endured season after season of enormous defeats. In one match that year, Steve Mazey of West Townsville kicked 27 goals against them. The Northern Beaches Lions were renamed to the Twin City Lions in 2002 and continued to struggle until the end of 2008 when they went into recess with only one win to their credit in August 2004 over Curra Swans. The Lions regrouped and returned with much more solid foundations in 2012 under the banner of "Townsville City Lions". Despite losing every match that year, often at record margins, the determined Lions upgraded their Garbutt facility and won their second Senior match in June 2013 by a goal against University.
Despite the lack of growth in the Seniors, AFL Townsville enjoyed a massive surge in the Junior ranks in more recent years, numbers had increased, and now hundreds of children and teenagers turn out to give their all for their respective clubs.
In 2010, the Thuringowa Bulldogs (former West Townsville) won their first Senior premiership since 2001 in their 40th year and went on to go back to back in 2011.
Clubs
Current
6km 4miles
Magnetic Island
Garbutt
University
Thuringowa
Northern Beaches
Hermit Park
Curra
Locations of the teams home grounds (Yellow = Junior only)
Known as Northern Beaches 1999-2002, Known as Twin Cities 2003-2008, Known as Townsville City Lions 2012-2015. Merged with Northern Beaches Barras in 2016 to form Northern Beaches Suns
^"FOOTBALL MATCH". Cairns Post. Vol. III, no. 121. Queensland, Australia. 3 September 1885. p. 3. Retrieved 18 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
^Queensland Figaro and Punch 19 Jun 1886 Page 23 Football.
^"FOOTBALL". Townsville Daily Bulletin. Vol. LXIV, no. 147. Queensland, Australia. 20 June 1942. p. 6. Retrieved 12 September 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^"FOOTBALL". Townsville Daily Bulletin. Vol. LXV, no. 140. Queensland, Australia. 14 June 1943. p. 3. Retrieved 12 September 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
