Australian Football

Aspley

Aspley was originally established as a junior club in 1964, with the seniors following four years later in order to provide a natural progression route for youngsters wishing to remain involved in the sport as adults. Because the Hawthorn Football Club made a donation of 50 guineas to the club in its inaugural year it was decided to adopt brown and gold as the team’s official colours.

Aspley’s senior side enjoyed particular success from the mid-1980s through into the early years of the following decade. Its feat in claiming six Division One premierships in succession between 1985 and 1990 has only been bettered once, and its overall tally of eight senior top division flags places it second on the competition’s all time ladder, behind ten times premier Sherwood.

Competing in Division Two of the State League, the Hornets endured a testing time in 2006, but improved the longer the season went on, and the following year, under the guidance of new senior coach Dave Martin, made it as far as a preliminary final. After that, the 2008 season was a major disappointment as the Hornets missed finals participation completely. However, somewhat controversially the club was admitted to Division One for the 2009 season following the demise of of fellow northern Brisbane team the Zillmere Eagles. The reasons for the Hornets' elevation are easy to discern in that they are strong both in terms of player numbers and financially. 

In 2011 Aspley were one of ten foundation member clubs of the North East Australian Football League's Northern Conference.[1] The team was competitive in its debut season finishing fifth in its Conference in 2011, but slumped to second from bottom the following year. In 2013 the Hornets reached the Northern Conference grand final but lost by 46 points to Brisbane reserves.

The 2014 season proved to be by some measure the most noteworthy in the history of the Aspley Hornets Australian Football Club. In what was now a fourteen team single division competition Aspley won 13 out of 18 minor round matches to qualify for the finals in fourth place. They then accounted for Redland by 23 points in an elimination final and minor premiers University of Western Sydney Giants by 45 points in a preliminary final. This set up a grand final showdown with Sydney reserves and an enthralling, topsy turvy contest ensued. At half time the Hornets led by 9 points but the Swans then rattled on 7 third term goals to none to seemingly have a mortgage on the flag. Aspley, however, had other ideas, and in the final quarter they gradually chipped away at Sydney's lead, adding 6.5 to 1.2 which was enough to give them victory by 2 points. The winning goal was kicked right on the siren by Daniel Smith, leaving a scoreboard which read Aspley 15.12 (102); Sydney 15.10 (100).

After another strong season in 2015 the Hornets again qualified for the grand final and it turned out to be another nail biting affair. Opposed by Northern Territory Thunder, Aspley once again trailed at the last change before setting up a rousing climax. However, on this occasion they fell short by the narrowest possible margin. Scores were Thunder 11.15 (81) defeated Aspley 11.14 (80). The Hornets made no excuses but the fact that the match took place at the TIO Stadium in Darwin would undoubtedly have helped the victors.

Aspley maintained their status as one of the NEAFL's leading clubs in 2016 by again qualifying for the finals. However, their season was ended at the preliminary final stage by Sydney's Reserves side who won with effortless ease by 82 points, 15.23 (113) to 4.7 (31). A year later the Hornets' season was ended in the same way, albeit that on this occasion it was Sydney University who inflicted the coup de grace, emerging triumphant by 50 points, 19.12 (126) to 11.10 (76). In 2018 they made it a hat trick of losing preliminary finals when they went down by 56 points to Sydney Reserves before succumbing to Southport at the same stage in 2019.

In 2020 the NEAFL went into limbo because of the coronavirus pandemic and as of 2021 most of its constituent clubs, including the Hornets, will be competing in the VFL.

The Hornets also currently field a team in Division One of the Queensland Football Association. In 2018 this team came seventh on the ten team ladder.