Australian Football

Southport

Southport enjoyed immediate success upon admission to the Queensland Australian Football League in 1983, winning that year’s grand final against Morningside by 11 points. The side failed to make the following year’s grand final but there then followed a sequence of nine successive premiership play-offs for five wins and four defeats.

A comparative slump followed during the middle years of the 1990s but the Sharks finished the decade, in what was often a turbulent time for Queensland football, as an irrepressible force, winning four consecutive flags.

During its time in the state level competition, Southport developed into  far and away the most consistently successful club, claiming more than twice as many senior flags as any of its rivals. The thirteenth last of these premierships came in 2008 courtesy of a 17.14 (116) to 16.8 (104) grand final defeat of Zillmere Eagles. 

Since 2011 Southport have competed in the North East Australian Football League . Performances have generally been solid with the side contesting the Northern Conference finals in 2012 and 2013 and the league finals[1] in 2015. The ensuing couple of seasons were a trifle disappointing yielding seventh (2016) and ninth (2017) place finishes on the ten team premiership ladder. Then in 2018 the Sharks enjoyed a superlative season, topping the ladder ahead of a finals series which culminated in a resounding 14.6 (90) to 5.5 (35) grand final defeat of Sydney Reserves.