AFL Cairns
AFL 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 Cazalys Stadium which has staged 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 and 3,000 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, 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. 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. T. H. LAKE was the secretary. The modern league as we now know it formed in 1956 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. The league introduced a Women's Footy competition in 2002. 2004 Grand Final brawl. In the 2004 Grand Final between the North Cairns Tigers and the Port Douglas Crocs, a wild and violent bench-clearing brawl 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. 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. The league reacted by suspending the club for the 2015 season. AFL Players. Notable players from the AFL Cairns who went on to play at VFL/AFL level include Premiers . Below is the complete list of senior premiers in the AFL Cairns: Senior Grand Final Results. The 2004 Senior Grade Grand Final was declared a "no result" and the Premiership Cup withheld.