It is the match-up that Queensland football chiefs have dreamed of for 40 years and worked towards for more than 20 years … the Brisbane Lions against the Gold Coast SUNS in a final at the Gabba.
As fans of both clubs waited on-hold with Ticketmaster to buy tickets on Monday morning the inevitable ‘if only …’ thoughts emerged … if only the 2032 Olympic Stadium was ready now. Because a Gabba capacity of 34,000 will be nothing like enough.
Still, all things being equal the turnout on Saturday night for the unofficial QClash #30 – and QClash Final #1 – will top the record of 33,612 set in Round 8 this year.
And had recent Gabba renovations not reduced the capacity the ground AFL record of 37,478, set when Brisbane hosted Richmond in the 2019 qualifying final would be under threat.
It is all part of a fierce cross-code sporting war that has raged in south-east Queensland for 40 years, and, in 2004 peaked in AFL ranks when the prospect of a second AFL team in Queensland was first floated.
There was talk of QAFL powerhouse Southport stepping up to the big league and the possibility of luring a cash-strapped Melbourne club to the Gold Coast, and after a pre-season practice match at Carrara in 2005 between Brisbane and Essendon drew 16,591 the AFL got right on board.
The league ramped up efforts to further the game’s profile on the Gold Coast, which had traditionally been a graveyard for professional sporting franchises since the Brisbane Bears became the tourist strip’s first professional franchise in 1987.
It was a move driven solely by the wishes of then Bears owner and deputy-chairman Christopher Skase to base the team on a one-time paddock at Carrara, and although it defied all logic at the time, and was ultimately proved to be a mistake, it changed the face of sport on the Gold Coast.
In 1988 the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants joined the National Rugby League and suddenly there was a sporting war for bragging rights in Australia’s sixth-biggest city.
Basketball tried the Cougars and the Rollers from 1990-96, and the Blaze from 2007-12, and in 2007 rugby union fielded the East Coast Aces, who had shut down within 12 months.
Baseball fielded teams known as the Clippers, Dolphine and the Clippers from 1989-99, and there was even an ice-hockey team originally formed as the Brisbane Blue Tongues that relocated to the Coast in 2008, setting up base at Bundall for what would be five years before they folded.
Through all this the AFL had never given up on the Gold Coast despite the Bears’ relocation to the Gabba in 1993 after playing played four matches there in 1991 to test the market, and a major redevelopment of the famous cricket ground in 1992.
As the Gold Coast the population grew and the commercial interests expanded the AFL scheduled two games at Carrara in 2006. A Melbourne home game against Adelaide drew a crowd of 8258, and a Hawthorn home against Brisbane and pulled 12,315.
North Melbourne, who from 1999 had traded as ‘Kangaroos’ in a bid to increase the club’s national appeal, signed a lucrative deal to play three home games at Carrara in 2007-08.
With the full backing of the AFL North considered a full-time move to the Coast, and even filmed a television commercial shown in south-east Queensland promoting their team and the game.
In 2007 the Gold Coast Titans entered the NRL in an apparent bid to quell the AFL’’s growth in the region, which took a turn in December 2007 when North, who had joined the then VFL in 1925 and won the flag in 1975-77, in the 1996 AFL Century Year, and in 1997 as ‘Kangaroos’, voted against relocation and the AFL’s $100m package.
As TV personality James Brayshaw took over as chairman they changed their trading name back to ‘North Melbourne’ before fulfilling a lucrative contractual obligation to play three home matches at Carrara in 2008.
Local focus quickly turned to the possibility of the Gold Coast establishing their own team, which had been floated by Southport as early as 1996.
With next to no publicity the AFL registered the name ‘Gold Coast Football Club Ltd” with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on 24 December 2007, and in March 2008 the AFL’s 16 club presidents voted with the League administration to establish sides on the Gold Coast and in Western Sydney.
In 2008 a local consortium that became known as GC17 – as in the 17th licence – was established to drive an official bid for a licence under criteria defined by the league.
In a critical development, the Queensland Government finally committed to funding for a stadium in early 2009, and on 31 March 2009 the new club was granted a conditional licence.
As the saying goes, the rest is history. And it will be with great pride and satisfaction that long-time football aficionados watch the first bounce in the Lions v Suns semi-final at the Gabba at 7.35pm on Saturday night.
