For years, Paralympian Michael Dobbie-Bridges’s life was tennis, representing Australia in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics to six World Cups in wheelchair tennis.

Despite achieving a world ranking of 29 in singles and 27 in doubles, he’s traded his racket for a football — now the captain-coach of a local wheelchair AFL league on Brisbane’s southside called the Morningside Panthers.

Despite the sports being vastly different, the para-athlete, who is a paraplegic, was able to transfer his tennis skills to footy.

“The wheelchair movement skills are really similar,” Dobbie-Bridges said.

“Obviously, don’t have a racket in your hand, so things are a bit easier.”

When the Victorian football fanatic moved to Queensland more than seven years ago, he became “jealous” of his friends back home who were involved in wheelchair AFL.

Dobbie-Bridges contacted the football league about bringing a wheelchair version of the sport to the sunshine state.

‘Everyone really loves watching wheelchair AFL’

Trisha Squires, the head of AFL Queensland, said it’s important to make sure “every person can play” the game. 

Adding a wheelchair division was “another piece to our puzzle”, she said.

The AFL launched a series of come-and-try events to test the appetite for the wheelchair version of the game.

She said people drove a “long way” to participate in the events, and the success of the trials led to it becoming its own league in 2023, with four foundation clubs across the state’s south-east in Beenleigh, Ormeau, Redcliffe and Morningside.

Ms Squires said the wheelchair division had also expanded so players could represent the Brisbane Lions or Gold Coast SUNS, and the state at national competitions.

The game’s rules are similar to AFL, but instead of playing on a football field, the wheelchair division is played on a netball court with two teams of five members.

The goals are the same, but a kick is a handball, and a thrown ball is equivalent to a pass.

“Everyone really loves watching wheelchair AFL. It’s very exciting.”

Goal to mirror other AFL leagues

Dobbie-Bridges said compared to other para sports in the state and across Queensland, the growth for wheelchair AFL has been “quite phenomenal”.

“Creating a sport from the ground up, and seeing the growth, but also seeing the sense of community amongst the group, that’s what makes me really proud.”

Paul Mazoletti, the chairman of Australia’s largest community-based football club, said it was a “no-brainer” when asked if his Morningside club wanted a wheelchair division.

“We know it’s very big in South Australia and Victoria, so we wanted to lead that way in Queensland.”

Dobbie-Bridges’ dream is for wheelchair AFL to have a fully-fledged 18-national competition that mirrors the AFL and the AFLW leagues.

“We’re not there yet, but we’re building. We’re putting things in place,” he said.