While in Melbourne where the Ipswich-based Brisbane Lions were about win their 3rd consecutive Australian Football league grand final, I revisited three historical football moments with big Ipswich contributions. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.
There was an Australian Rules intercolonial club grand final in 1890 that history forgot. That’s when Ipswich hosted South Melbourne at the North Ipswich reserve.
South Melbourne were the undefeated colonial champions of Victoria. The team boasted all-time greats captain Sonny Elms who the best fullback in the country, Peter Burns who was probably the best Australian Rules footballer of the century, and Edgar Barrett who was the leading goal-kicker in Victoria that year
Ipswich were the colonial champions of Queensland. The Ipswich “Blue and Blacks” were led by the popular captain Steve Welch who would go on to be named as vice-captain of Queensland’s team of the century.
The day was declared a public holiday in Ipswich. Three thousand people paid to get into the game, and probably more than that watched for free sitting in trees and on hills around the ground. Trains were delayed for an hour so that the large number of country spectators could get home after the match.
Ipswich surprised South Melbourne with their enthusiasm and trailed the heavily-favoured southern champions by just 2 goals at half time. South Melbourne put the foot down and won this historic intercolonial grand final-of-sorts by 5 goals.
The second historic AFL note for Ipswich came in the Victorian Football League grand final in 1899. Fitzroy beat South Melbourne by 1-point, but importantly for us playing for South Melbourne that day was Warwick Armstrong. Armstrong would play sixteen games for South Melbourne but achieved international fame as captain of the Australian cricket team.
It was Armstrong who was responsible for the discovery of Ipswich’s Bert Ironmonger. Ironmonger took over 1,000 wickets for Ipswich’s Alberts cricket cub at an average of less than six runs each, but could never get a game for Queensland. But Armstrong, the Australian cricket captain and VFL grand finalist, identified his talent, took him to Melbourne, and Ironmonger became the first person from Ipswich to play Test cricket for Australia, and was Australia’s most successful left-hand bowler of his time.
The third historic AFL note for Ipswich that I’ll tell you about concerns a gentleman by the name of Herbert Bryant. Bryant was born in Ipswich in 1860. He was the nephew of Australia’s first prime minister Sir Edmund Barton.
Bryant captained Brisbane Grammar School’s Australian Rules football team and played in the Brisbane football club’s senior team while he was still at school.
Bryant then went to Melbourne where he played with St Kilda and Essendon, and in 1879 as a nineteen-year-old he represented Victoria against South Australia. These were the two best Australian Rules football colonies in Australia and they played in front of an enormous crowd for the time of 10,000 people.
That meant that both Bryant and Ipswich claimed a significant place in Queensland sporting history. And that’s because the first Queenslander to go to Melbourne and make it big in Australian Rules football, and even represent Victoria, was born in Ipswich!
When Brisbane Lions ran out onto the Melbourne Cricket Ground, they were not only about to create AFL history but also recall the history that came before – the 1890 intercolonial club grand final, the 1899 grand finalist, and Ipswich’s own Herbert Bryant in the intercolonial match in 1879.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY ON WEST BREMER RADIO.
Photo credits:
Brisbane Lions run on for the AFL Grand Final 2026 – Harold Peacock 20260926_141317.
Steve Welch Jnr, captain, Queensland team 1888 – State Library of Queensland.
Warwick Armstrong 1902 – Wikipedia Commons.
Herbert William Bryant – Argus, Melbourne, 25th October 1924, page 32.
Brisbane Lions celebrate AFL Grand Final 2026 – 20260926_180843.
