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The Australian Football League Cairns is a semi-professional Australian rules football league that includes clubs from the Cairns region in Queensland, Australia. It is widely regarded as the strongest regional Australian rules football league in Queensland and has a large base at Cazaly's Stadium which has staged pre-season Australian Football League matches.

The league has significant coverage in local media such as The Cairns Post. Each year the Grand Final attracts between 2,000-3,000 spectators.

The league has produced many notable players at VFL/AFL level, including Colin Judd (Hawthorn), Craig Brittain (North Melbourne), Troy Clarke, (Brisbane Bears), Mark West (Western Bulldogs), Che Cockatoo-Collins, Donald Cockatoo-Collins, David Cockatoo-Collins, Jason Roe, Courtenay Dempsey and Jarrod Harbrow.

[edit] History

The league formed in 1957 and a local schoolboy competition was also formed resulting in a remarkable junior representative trip to Townsville by plane. In 1957 the ANFC through Bruce Andrew purchased land in Cairns for the first dedicated field in regional Queensland which was to become Cazaly's Stadium. The initial Senior competition had only two teams Norths and Souths but by a ruse in publicity it was made to seem more impressive by systematically adding in non existent teams Easts and Wests. At one stage the speed of growth concerned a Rugby League journalist wrote that to allow it to continue was akin to allowing "a Taipan in our Midst." Around 2000, the league affiliated with the Australian Football League and was rebranded to become the AFL Cairns.

The league has grown rapidly in recent years with the ongoing development of Cazaly's Stadium, success of the Queensland based Brisbane Lions and with Cairns hosting exhibition Australian Football League matches.

The league introduced a Women's Footy competition in 2005.^[1]

A wild and violent brawl erupted in the 2004 Grand Final between North Cairns and Port Douglas which caused publicity around Australia, sparking the biggest investigation in the history of Australian Rules Football.^[2] 22 players involved received a total ban of 400 matches and instigator, former VFL player Jason Love was banned from playing for 8 years.^[3]

[edit] Clubs

[edit] Current

Club	Colours	Years in competition	Website
Cairns City Cobras	Navy Blue, White	Previously known as City United
Cairns Saints	Red, Black, White	1993-
Centrals-Trinity Beach Bulldogs	Red, blue and white	1963- (merger of Centrals and Aloomba, known until 1988 as Centrals-Aloomba)
South Cairns Cutters
Port Douglas Crocs	Dark blue and white	1989-
North Cairns Tigers	Black and yellow	Foundation member, 1958 -	http://www.northcairnstigers.com.au/
Manunda Hawks	Brown, Yellow	Formed 1984-

[edit] Former

Club	Colours	Years in competition
Aloomba-Gordonvale		1956-1962 (merged with Centrals to form Centrals-Aloomba)
Babinda Magpies	Black, White	c.1960-c.1980s
Balaclava		c.1950s
Centrals		1959-1962 (merged with Aloomba to form Centrals-Aloomba)
Innisfail Roos	Red, White	Early 1980s
Mareeba Saints	Red, White Black	Early 1980s
Souths Balaclava Swans	Red, White	c.1960s-c.1980s
Tinaroo Dambusters	Dark Blue, White, Light Blue	c.1950s

[edit] Junior

Centrals Trinity Beach
South Cairns Cutters
Port Douglas Crocs
North Cairns Tigers
Manunda Hawks
Pyramid Power
Redlynch lions
Cairns Saints
Tableland Pythons

[edit] See also

Australian Rules football in Queensland

[edit] References

^ Women pull on the jersey from ABC North Queensland
^ PM - AFL yet to decide fate of brawling players
^ Eight-year ban for ex-Swan - AFL - www.smh.com.au

[edit] External links

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[0] Women pull on the jersey from ABC North Queensland

[1] PM - AFL yet to decide fate of brawling players

[2] Eight-year ban for ex-Swan - AFL - www.smh.com.au

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