They might be 16th and 17th on the ladder, but ask anyone who has followed the game in Queensland over the past three decades and they will say it is nothing short of remarkable there are two teams playing north of the Tweed River.
Marcus Ashcroft started with the Brisbane Bears in 1989 and went on to play 318 games, including three premierships with the Brisbane Lions. He has just about seen it all.
He started with the Bears playing out of Carrara on the Gold Coast at a time when Queensland was considered little more than a footy backwater, despite the code having a history stretching back to the 1860s.
"It's chalk and cheese from when I started," Ashcroft said. "I played my first game in 1989 and you look at the crowds and we didn't have that many hard-core supporters.
"Most of the people who came along were ex-pat Victorians and they tended to support the opposition.
"I really think the success of the Brisbane Lions drew a lot of people in. Everyone likes to be associated with successful teams and that really helped stamp us.
"In 2001, '02 and '03, having that ultimate success (premierships) really meant that south-east Queensland took us on board. It was fantastic to have that real passion and to know your supporters really cared for you."
AFL Queensland CEO Richard Griffiths said, while the code was not recognised nationally in Queensland until the Bears entered the VFL in 1987, it had been played in Brisbane for more than a century.
However, he said the biggest kick along came in 1999 when the AFL Commission reviewed the game in the sunshine state.
The review resulted in a huge investment in development in Queensland that has totalled $60 million since 2000.
"And that coincided with the Lions winning the three premierships, so that combination of the investment from the AFL and the premierships gave us a great fillip to take the game forward," Griffiths said.
Queensland responded with Auskick numbers growing from 5000 to 28,000 and overall participation jumping from 23,000 to 112,000 in the past decade.
Saturday night pits proven champions, including Simon Black and Luke Power, against the stars of tomorrow, such as David Swallow and Brandon Matera.
Griffiths said the introduction of an academy program two years ago that zoned youngsters to either Gold Coast or the Lions was also a huge step in retaining the best young talent in the game.
Ashcroft has had a medal struck in his name to be presented to the best player on the ground in Lions-Suns matches and, despite his long association with the Lions, he said Saturday night was a no-brainer for him.
"I'm a Suns man. The Brisbane Lions have been a big part of my life, but I'm a one-eyed Suns man and looking forward to them being successful," he said.
"People are passionate about the rivalry it presents going forward. It will be great for Queensland to have that emotion and passion for a club, which is what the traditional football states like Victoria and South Australia and Western Australia have.
"We want to get to the stage where the rivalry between the Suns and Lions is like the State of Origin in rugby league, which is the most passionate and emotional Queenslanders get in sport. There will be that divide between clubs, that real passion."
Griffiths said key administrators, including Ken Murphy, Andrew Ireland, Peter Cummiskey and Alan 'Doc' McKenzie, would look on with a sense of pride.
"To think 10 to 15 years ago that there would be a second team in Queensland, you wouldn't have believed it," he said.
"It's an enormous step forward for the growth and development and interest levels of the game."
The story was first published in the AFL Record
