AFL Canberra goes back to the future
Canberra first established its premier AFL league in 1924 when the Federal Territory Australian Rules football league was introduced.
The league was renamed several times with some teams re-branded during its first 80 years, but for the most part the competition remained strong until 2011.
2011 brought the introduction of the NEAFL (North Eastern Australian Football League) which was set to become the second tier competition for AFL on the Eastern Coast.
At the time there was large amounts of excitement for the AFL Canberra community, with all the Canberra First grade clubs invited to join the new competition. However what the community was blind to was the demise this would cause the now 87 year old Canberra first grade competition.
The next three seasons saw Canberra clubs slowly being forced to exit the NEAFL unable to continue carrying the financial burden associated with the competition, until 2015 where only two Canberra clubs remain in the NEAFL.
Determined to reignite AFL in the Nation’s Capital these clubs are now banding together to try and re-create the AFL Canberra first grade competition.
Queanbeyan, Tuggeranong, Belconnen and Gungahlin will all field their strongest sides in the newly re developed AFL Canberra first grade competition, whilst Ainslie and Eastlake (the remaining NEAFL sides) will file their reserves team.
AFL Canberra employee Cameron Bernasconi says the new competition will create a new sense of community for AFL in Canberra.
“The NEAFL is a great competition and it’s great to have clubs from Canberra involved in it… But in the past two or three years we have lost a lot of that community feel that was built up in the local first grade competition.”
Bernasconi believes that returning to the old competition will reignite some of the great rivalries which have developed over the years.
“Some of these teams have been playing each other for 80 years… You build great rivalries in time like that and hopefully by us bringing back this competition we can bring back some passion to AFL in Canberra.”
The returning first grade competition is set to kick off on Saturday May 2nd when old rivals Ainslie and Queanbeyan battle it out on one side of town, while Belconnen host Tuggeranong on the other side.
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