History of Australian rules football on the Gold Coast
The season was temporarily interrupted when a Gold Coast representative side was scheduled to play the Royal Australian Navy team in Palm Beach on 16 August.
In an attempt to grow the code, Southport scheduled several showcase matches against Brisbane-based QANFL clubs Enoggera, Mayne, Morningside and University.
With only two senior clubs based on the Gold Coast, the GCAFL Grand Final was contested between Southport and Currumbin with the Magpies claiming their second consecutive premiership by 53 points.
The Brisbane clubs in the QAFL had long seen the Gold Coast as a lesser competition and weren't expecting Southport to achieve much in the Brisbane-based league.
However, the Sharks would send shock waves through the competition when they claimed the QAFL premiership in their debut season with a victory over the Morningside Australian Football Club in the Grand Final.
Once again determined to prove to the Brisbane clubs that Gold Coast football was not a joke, the Sharks would set their eyes on premiership glory again in 1985.
Two weeks later the Sharks would again face Mayne in the Grand Final and with a minute to go, Southport full-forward Glen Middlemiss would kick a goal that would seal a three-point victory.
Southport began the 1986 season with a bang by signing Brownlow Medal winning ruckman Gary Dempsey in an attempt to cover some of the players they had lost.
Billionaire owner Skase decided to open the chequebook and the Bears were able to acquire the services of 1985 Brownlow Medalist Brad Hardie and Collingwood captain Mark Williams.
Despite local fans disagreeing with CEO Andrew Ireland,[6] the ever-increasing problems with Carrara Stadium would lead to the Brisbane Bears permanently moving north to the Gabba Ground for the 1993 AFL season.
Although interest in the sport had waned on the Gold Coast during the years the Bears were based at Carrara Stadium, the Southport Sharks continued to stamp their authority in the QAFL as a powerhouse club.
Now on a mission to prove the AFL made the wrong decision by not granting them a license, the Sharks would win four consecutive QAFL premierships between 1997 and 2000.
This led to the AFL Chief Executive Wayne Jackson stating "I was left with the indelible impression that if ever there was another side outside of a capital, no one else would be in as strong a position as Southport to compete for that.
[9] The bids would be unsuccessful but a surprise crowd of 16,591 at Carrara Stadium to a pre-season match between the Brisbane Lions and Essendon prompted the Australian Football League to act.
[12] On 7 December 2007 the newly appointed Kangaroos chairman James Brayshaw announced the club would not be moving to the Gold Coast permanently and would continue to be based out of Melbourne.
In January 2008, it was reported that the AFL officially registered the name Gold Coast Football Club Ltd with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
[13] The registration was of a public company limited by guarantees rather than by shares, the corporate personality common to 15 of 16 of the current AFL teams, the exception being the Fremantle Football Club.
[15] In July AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou made a surprise visit to the Gold Coast in an attempt to help the GC17 bid team gain corporate support.
With 42,000 supporters signed up and 110 sponsors already committed, the final roadblock would involve the Queensland Labor Party's $60 million redevelopment of Carrara Stadium that would occur if they won the election.
The club shocked many on 29 July 2009 when they signed Queensland Rugby League player Karmichael Hunt from the Brisbane Broncos to a three-year deal.
[23] After a season of mixed results the Gold Coast Football Club would finish fifth on the ladder with a record of ten wins, seven losses and one draw.
[24] During the 2009 off season the Gold Coast Football Club would make major inroads by signing Geelong Cats premiership play Nathan Ablett,[25] former North Melbourne player Daniel Harris and former Collingwood duo Danny Stanley and Sam Iles.
In early 1987, Brisbane Bears financial backer Christopher Skase, would fund a redevelopment of Carrara Stadium to feature makeshift stands.
Australian rules football would not return at a professional level until 2006 when 8,258 fans saw the Melbourne Demons hosted the Adelaide Crows in Round 3 of the 2006 AFL season.
The most intense rivalry in local Queensland football exists between the neighbouring clubs in the form of the Southport Sharks and the Broadbeach Cats and stretches back to their first meeting in 1971.
The rivalry reached boiling point in 1999 when the Sharks successfully lured future AFL number 1 draft pick Nick Riewoldt from the Cats.
