We need to talk about footy in Queensland

The AFL has made every effort over the last two decades to make football ‘Australia’s game’. But right now, our supposedly national game is floundering badly in an incredibly important state – Queensland.

Their teams are performing woefully on the field. Their stadiums are consistently empty. One club is owned by the AFL, the other is in dire financial straits.

With both sides winless heading into ‘QClash’ number nine, only 12,000 people turned up to watch the Brisbane Lions blow the Gold Coast Suns away with their dazzling ineptitude en route to a 64-point loss.

Forget Tasmania, forget the Northern Territory, forget New Zealand. Queensland is where the AFL’s help is most desperately needed.

It’s hard to believe, but just as recent as one month ago everybody was frothing at the mouth as to the 2015 prospects of the Sunshine Staters.

With proven coach Rodney Eade, boom signing Nick Malceski and Gary Ablett’s return from injury, it wasn’t a case of whether Gold Coast would make the finals, it was who they’d replace.

For Brisbane, the signings of Dayne Beams, Allen Christensen and Mitch Robinson, as well as a popular uniform change, had many talking up the Lions’ prospects as well.

Fast forward to the present, and it looks a near certainty that neither side will deliver on that promise this year. And that’s wreaking havoc at the turnstiles.

The Suns have always been the better-supported expansion side, and last season they brought some nice crowds to Metricon. One Sunday afternoon late in the season they managed to draw 21,354 to a match against the Swans, while a month later 24,032 witnessed Gary Ablett’s do his shoulder in an otherwise rousing win over Collingwood.

All in all, Gold Coast managed to bring in an average crowd of 16,092 after hovering around the 13,000-mark the previous two seasons. A nice figure when you consider the NRL’s Gold Coast Titans tend to average around 14,000.

But this season the early results have taken a toll. 13,649 people turned up to watch the Suns get towelled up by St Kilda in Round 2, while yesterday the current lack of interest in the poorly-named QClash was aptly displayed by a crowd of 12,464 – a record low for the rivalry.

That said, while 13,649 is a disappointing attendance for a home opener, it’s certainly reasonable given the Saints are a low-drawing opposition, and there’s no doubt the midweek weather played a part yesterday, but the club is on the back foot early in its quest to boost attendances further this season.

The Brisbane Lions on the other hand have it, arguably, much worse. Since the halcyon days of the early 2000s, the Lions have been extremely uncompetitive, making the finals just once.

Evidently, the fans have had enough.

After averaging a healthy 33,619 people per game in 2004, the club slowly slid down to 28,127 in 2008. The 2009 finals campaign was enough to get them back to just under 30,000, but after an extremely disappointing 2010 campaign, crowds have fallen off a cliff.

In 2011 – the year Gold Coast entered the competition – Brisbane’s crowds fell from 29,933 to 20,461. Last season, their average slipped below 20,000.

The promise of on-field success and the removal of the ‘Paddle Pop’ lion had an instant impact in Round 1, with 31,240 people packing the Gabba in a close loss. But as the losing margins have grown, the crowds have fallen.

An enormous number of travelling Tigers fans helped them reach 22,000 in the Round 3 clash with Richmond, but only 16,632 people showed up to see them get crushed by the Eagles last week.

The decade of ineptitude has ruined the club’s finances, with the Lions rumoured to be over $12 million in debt after posting a $3.5 million loss in 2014.

They may not be the second coming of the Brisbane Bears, but the Lions cannot afford to be a basket case on the field for very much longer.

As they all say however, a week is a long time in footy. Who knows, in four months we could all be sitting down to watch the first ever Suns vs Lions elimination final.

But as it stands now, football in Queensland needs all the help it can get.