Jack Esplen Oval

Jack Esplen Oval

Morningside Australian Football Club, also known as Morningside AFC or the Panthers, is an Australian Rules football club based at Jack Esplen Oval in the suburb of Hawthorne in Brisbane. The club consists of both Junior and Senior football sections. Its senior team competes in the AFL Queensland Australian rules football competition, while its junior sides compete in the AFL Brisbane Juniors (AFLBJ) competition. The club also caters for young girls and boys by running Auskick skills clinics, which are held at the beginning of the season and do not involve competitive games.

Morningside AFC has operated successfully as a football club in Brisbane for over 50 years and is one of the most widely recognised Queensland based AFL clubs within Australia. It developed from the Hawthorne Juniors club which was founded in 1931.

At the beginning of the 2000 season the members of both clubs’ voted unanimously to join and form one united club. This decision was made to strengthen the club socially, financially and to improve the junior player development programmes and created a player path to the elite AFLQ State League competition.

Morningside has provided some of the best Queensland-bred Australian rules footballers of the last 50 years, including triple-premiership winning Brisbane Lions captain Michael Voss and his teammate fullback Mal Michael, Voss's brother Brett Voss (who played at Brisbane and St Kilda), Brisbane Lions youngster Scott Harding comes from this club as well as former Carlton player Tony Lynn.