Our senior league consists of five senior clubs with reserves, with the Lions back in 2010.

Our Junior league consists of 9 junior clubs with the growth of the game continuing at a pleasing rate.

School footy has been well received with all schools getting a look at AFL with both girls and boys enjoying the great game including 33 schools in 2009 with 42 teams in the school competition. In the NAB AUSKICK clinics we had 1648 children registered. Townsville AFL is very fortunate to have three development officers working for AFL Queensland.

With the talent program the Townsville representative team is the Eagles, playing in the junior grades and going away to carnivals and in 2008 hosting the Queensland under 16 (Australia Post) Championships with three days of non stop action. Our umpires are always on the look out for new members. The Umpires have a pathway program to assist with breaking into the ranks of field umpires and work with Cairns AFL with training and games. 2010 will see more information regarding umpiring via the website with rule and signal of the week.

Not forgetting the Young at Heart we have a strong Masters outfit. These guys are over 35 years old and play carnivals around the state and can’t seem to get enough of the game. Some even still play in the club games, umpire or administer at club level.

Our ovals and facilities are a great asset to the league. Tony Ireland Stadium is an AFL approved ground and of international cricket standard. The stadium and facilities are excellent. The Bulldogs are based here with the Hawks and Lions playing their home games here too. Night games are possible with great lighting.

The Queensland v Western Australia footy match, Australia A v Pakistan A & Queensland v Victoria in a 20/20 cricket matches being held here and the North Queensland Fury soccer played their first home game here.

The Murray sporting complex has three ovals and is the home of the Tigers (Just completed clubhouse renovations), the Swans (Brand new clubhouse and lights) and the Junior League who has worked hard to get a 3/4 quarter ground from dream to reality (RMS Oval). These are great ovals and both the Tigers and Swans are continuing with improvements to their club houses. The Lions train at the Castle Hill PCYC at Harold Phillips Park and the University Hawks train at Lavarack Army Barracks.

The league started in 1954/55. Over the years we have had a few clubs come and go, merge but two of the originals the Tigers and the Bulldogs remain. Being a garrison city with the Army and Air Force based here we have a lot of transient players. Both the RAAF & Army have won Premierships.

2010 AND BEYOND

AFL Townsville is growing in numbers and we are looking at increasing our participation rate with AUSKICK for the little beginners, the Junior grades with our new ¾ oval opening at McMillan Park this year, school competitions, the senior competition, and the masters who are 40 years young.

Townsville AFL is not just for Blokes. Ladies make up a fair percentage of our management committees at both league and club level. Girls have moved into the umpiring ranks and mothers are now taking more interest in their child’s sport. We will be looking at hosting a RECFOOTY competition at the end of the year. RECFOOTY is a modified social AFL game with ten players on each side with a minimum of 3 ladies playing on the field.

Other options that we are looking at are the indigenous round and the multicultural round coinciding with Townsville’s Multicultural Festival. All of this amounts to significant numbers coming through the gates each week for at least 20 weeks (regular season) a year with a wide cross section of people including mothers, fathers, girlfriends and players and also a large demographic age from 7 years to our older participants being 40 years and over. Another great reason to sponsor the Townsville AFL.

A history of AFL in Townsville

(Originally written by Kevin Geddes.)

The League was launched with three teams, RAAF, Hermit Park and South Townsville in 1954.

After a series of exhibition matches competition began with 10 fixtures and a Grand Final between composite teams.

Games were played at RAAF Oval and Gill Park and an exhibition game at the Show Grounds.

All clubs were founded with juniors.

Rod Wilson’s recruiting style was extremely novel for Hermit Park juniors.

 Rod was a policeman stationed at Mundingburra and he would give the local youth he caught at minor indiscretions the choice of playing Aussie Rules or a ticket.

The Garbutt club was formed in 1956.

Currajong came into the comp in 1961 substituting for the RAAF who had struggled for numbers in the previous three years and the four team comp continued until 1967.

 A lot of the services personnel left, played for the new club Currajong.

The Army entered the scene in 1968 when 6RAR and a revived RAAF side expanded the league to 6 teams.

1969 saw the 2^nd Battalion substitute for the 6^th who were transferred and with the Fourth Field Regiment the competition expanded to 7 sides.

1970 the RAAF again dropped out, 2RAR and 4^th Field headed off to Vietnam and a combined army side was admitted to the TAFL as Lavarack accompanied by newly launched Townsville whose numbers were mainly made up of airmen displaced when their team pulled out and some players from Hermit Park again made it a 6 team comp.

Lavarack who were not competitive and did not affiliate in 1971 so five sides contested the 1971 premiership season and seconds were introduced for the first time.

The Army combine were back for 1972 where, because of their insistence that army players play for the army side, Lavarack won the premiership.

The Wulguru club, who were established in 1968, entered senior sides and this made the league up to 7 sides.

The TAFL adopted an enduring policy at the 1973 AGM excluding army based teams on the basis that army players would be denied the opportunity to play for district clubs as per what happened in 1972.

The Upper Ross club, whose numbers consisted of players mainly from the Army’s Battalion, were 1974 Reserve Premiers but with the completion of the Yabulu nickel project which had bought a host of players to the clubs, many of these players either returned home or moved to other competitions causing the reserves to be suspended and thus the newcomers were thrown into the deep end and for the next 3 seasons struggled to be competitive before disappearing towards the end of 1977.

The League continued with 6 clubs with Upper Ross substituting for Garbutt who withdrew their teams in 1976, ‘77 in controversial circumstances but they were back in 1978.

The competition was to remain with 6 sides from 1976 – 1982 until in 1983 a side from Burdekin increased the numbers once again to 7.

Unfortunately the Burdekin side came and went having been subjected to a series of unmerciful thrashings which was not surprising considering the fact that the side was made up from converted Rugby players and the team 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 which would have significant consequences.

Four seasons of summer football followed and while the “Darwin” seasons attracted some top players junior development was stifled.

’84 and ’88 were transitional years to and from the summer comp.

A Townsville side, the Eagles, were entered in the Cairns comp in 1988 and although the side reached the Preliminary Final the pressure of the 500 kilometre round trip every other weekend took its toll on players keenness and their bold thrust towards the Grand Final faltered.

Except for 1989 when University and Hawks swelled the numbers to 7 clubs, the strength of the league hovered between 4 and 5 teams which is the size of the current competition.

Garbutt were expelled midway through ’89.

University, as in ’80 and ’81, could not sustain the interest and after a Reserve flag in ’89 were history a few weeks into 1990.

JCU students from the football states returned home when holidays came around and so the football club closed down during these periods because of a lack of local players to sustain their teams.

The surviving clubs of the TAFL are Hermit Park, West Townsville, Curra Swans, Lions and University Hawks.

When Currajong in 1990 swallowed up a penniless Townsville Swans who had switched from South Townsville in June 1982 to become the Townsville Swans the combined sides became the Curra Swans.

The nomination of the Hawks club in ’89 caused a stir due to the number of current players recruited from Hermit Park, Currajong and South Townsville using suspect overtures, although be that as it may the club were premiers by a point in their first season.