Australian Football

Wynnum - popularly known as the Tricolours - joined the Queensland Football League in the competition’s second season of 1905, and remained involved, other than when the league was in recess owing to the war from 1915 to 1919, until 1925. The club was fairly strong initially, and contested the premiership deciding match in its third season, but lost to Locomotives.

Australian football seems to have been in a fairly vibrant state during the QFL’s first two or three seasons, but by 1909 the honeymoon period was over, and a combination of factors led to the departure from the competition of two key clubs, Brisbane and Ipswich, plus a number of other ‘lesser lights’. The Tricolours, who had been competitive without being outstanding in 1908, proved to be perhaps the sole beneficiaries of this unfortunate reduction in the ranks, for they promptly not only broke through to claim their first premiership, they did so without losing a game. Top of the ladder with a 6-0 record after an abbreviated minor round, they proceeded to overcome City in the somewhat idiosyncratic sectional round, and then again a week later in a semi final. In the final they beat Valley with a considerable amount to spare, 4.10 (34) to 1.3 (9).

Wynnum reached another premiership decider in 1911, only to succumb by a couple of points to the QFL’s emerging power of the day, South Brisbane. The club’s second premiership arrived in 1920, which was the league’s first post-war season. It was won thanks to a hard fought grand final defeat of an accurate Valley combination which managed to get within 3 points despite having 8 fewer scoring shots. That was as good as it got for the Tricolours, however, as within five seasons they appear to have disbanded, although a completely unrelated club known as Wynnum today competes in the Queensland’s Football Association.