The league has significant coverage in local media such as The Cairns Post. Each year the Grand Final attracts between 2,500 and 3,500 spectators.
History
An article in the Cairns Post on 3 September 1885 on page 3 titled "Football Match" describes a game of football played at the then cricket grounds,[2] believed to have been in the precinct around Munro Martin Park and the Civic Theatre. This game was between Cairns, led by Jack MacNamara (believed to have been a representative of Victoria at first intercolonial match) and Townsville, led by F Rendall. References are made of "Little Marks" and the final score after 2 hours was Cairns, 1 goal 7 behinds to Townsville, 1 goal 3 behinds. The Cairns umpire was AJ Draper.[2]
The Cairns team was :- Michelle Burke, Leonie Burke, J Swallow, "Little" Draper, Reid, Crawford, Horse, Campbell, Warren, Harrison, McClelland, Oldham, Rev.Nobbs, Grcnsen, J.Loridan, Bulcock, Wood, Ärmstrong, C.Loridan, Johnstone, D. Wall, Middlebrook, Schumhronk, Dent, McCarthy, Hogarth.[2]
The modern league as we now know it formed in 1955[3] as the Cairns Australian Football League and a local schoolboy competition was also formed resulting in a 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 became Cazalys Stadium. The initial Senior competition had only two teams, Norths and Souths. This has since expanded to seven teams.
Around 2000, the league affiliated with the Australian Football League and was re-branded AFL Cairns. The league has grown rapidly in recent years with the ongoing development of Cazalys Stadium, the success of the Queensland-based Brisbane Lions, and with Cairns hosting exhibition Australian Football League matches and later matches for premiership points.
In the 2004 Grand Final between the North Cairns Tigers and the Port Douglas Crocs, a wild and violent bench-clearing brawl [5][6] erupted after Tigers players charged at the Crocs huddle at the end of the national anthem, and the brawl escalated when spectators and team officials became involved. This caused widespread media publicity around Australia, and sparked the biggest investigation in the history of Australian Rules Football.[citation needed]
The instigator, former VFL/AFL player and Tigers coach Jason Love, was suspended for eight years (three years for a total of eleven charges arising from the melee, including striking three opposition players and abusing and threatening the field umpires when they went to report him, and five years for bringing the game of Australian Rules Football in Queensland into disrepute), and the 22 North Cairns players were suspended for a total of 400 matches, suspensions ranging from 10 matches to five years, for various charges in relation to the brawl. AFL Cairns declared the Grand Final a "no result" and withheld the 2004 premiership.
Manunda Hawks' Omission from the 2015 season
In 2014, the Manunda Hawks forfeited an away game against Port Douglas due to the concern for the safety of a player that was threatened via social media.[7] The league reacted by suspending the club for the 2015 season.[8]
^ abcd"FOOTBALL MATCH". Cairns Post. Vol. III, no. 121. Queensland, Australia. 3 September 1885. p. 3. Retrieved 18 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
^Bird, Murray; Parker, Greg (2018). More of the Kangaroo: 150 Years of Australian Football in Queensland - 1866 to 2016. Morningside, Qld. p. vii. ISBN978-0-9943936-1-6. OCLC1082363978.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
2023
