Murray Bird was 18 when his Introduction to Marxism lecturer convinced him he ought to barrack for a “good working class” football club.

Bird played junior Australian rules for his suburban Brisbane team at Coorparoo and cheered for the top-flight club of the same navy blue strip: Carlton. After his political convictions were questioned over a glass of red at university, however, he switched to another Melbourne-based club: the Fitzroy Lions.

The year was 1981, Australian rules football was a minor sport in Brisbane, the AFL did not exist and almost every Queenslander who followed the sport barracked for a Victorian club.

This Saturday, Bird will be among the tens of thousands of fans who will pack out the state’s home of Aussie rules, the Gabba, to cheer on two Queensland teams facing off in an AFL final for the first time. One is Bird’s club, since merged to form the Brisbane Lions, the reigning premiers. The coach of the other, the Gold Coast Suns’ Damien Hardwick, has billed the match as the biggest in Queensland football history.

Lions faithful Murray Bird at the Brisbane German Club, the traditional haunt of the club’s supporters. Photograph: Jamila Filippone

After his university days, Bird went on to become Queensland’s first AFL umpire and was inducted into the state’s football hall of fame. He also wrote or co-wrote several books on the game in his home state, among them: More of the Kangaroo: 150 Years of Australian Football in Queensland – 1866 to 2016.

So does he reckon Hardwick’s claim stacks up?

Bird chuckles. When Queensland beat Tasmania in 1975, he says, “people thought that pretty big”. Then there was the Lions’ three-peat AFL premierships from 2001-2003.

“But, yeah, this is a landmark moment,” he says. “This is huge.”

Bird will bear witness to the “milestone” with one of his three adult daughters, all of whom cheer for Brisbane.

“I’ve told them that if they vote Liberal or barrack for any other team than the Lions, they’re out of the will,” he says, giving the impression that he is probably joking.

Bird with his daughter, Hannah Bird, and 3-year-old granddaughter, Ella Glosko. Photograph: Jamila Filippone

In something of a longstanding tradition, one that can be traced to the first ever Australian rules game he saw, Bird will drop in to a bar in the shadows of the Lions’ home stadium for a pre-match drink with old footy mates.

He is not alone in this ritual – hundreds of punters will cram into the Brisbane German Club, a 143-year-old institution that predates the Gabba. And, like many in the muggy land north of the Tweed, it is a tradition so eccentric it could only be found in Queensland.

In a packed beer hall, punters will sing along to a Bavarian cover band performing the goal celebration songs of their beloved Lions – most notably Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver, the pick of crowd favourite small forward Charlie Cameron – as they quaff steins of weissbier.

The venue’s manager, Trent Boyle, says the informal relationship between footy and the German club – “a natural fit” – has never been stronger.

“This year, every game has been absolutely wall-to-wall,” he says.

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Boyle will call on all available hands to dish out an express menu in the hour or two before the game, with preparations to serve up to 700 wursts and kranskies, 400 schnitzels, 600 pretzels, 2,500 litres of beer, 30kg of sauerkraut and 100 signature, hulking pork knuckles.

The traditions and finals buzz are not confined to the state capital.

The Gold Coast mayor, Tom Tate, has been riding the Suns’ train, draping himself in the team’s red and yellow scarf on Monday morning to announce a live watch site at the Surfers Paradise Esplanade.

But Julie Somers and her daughter, Christie, will be among the Gold Coast fans to make the trip up the Pacific Highway.

A foundation Suns member, Somers has missed just two home games in 15 years and has also been part of – and for a few years skippered – its official cheer squad, the Sunscreamers.

“So I’ve been behind the goals since round two, 2011,” Somers says.

Somers and the Sunscreamers will stickytape up a supersized banner through which their team will run on to the field on Saturday to befit the occasion.

Sun’s diehard Julie Somers and her daughter, Christie, will travel up from the Gold Coast for the game. Photograph: Supplied

The Suns’ diehard says she has seen a false dawn or two in the club’s relatively short history, but in making and then winning their first final, her boys had already taken “the next big step”.

“This is what we’ve been building towards all this time,” Somers says.

So, if the club’s first September campaign continues with a derby win on Saturday, Somers says she will book her flights to Melbourne for a preliminary final at the home of footy, the MCG.

But, even if they were to lose, she says, she will still be happy with the 2025 season. “And in that case, you’d have to support the Queensland team. Go the Lions!”

Bird, too, says it is “just amazing” to see the game he loves flourishing in his state.

Because, whatever the result, thousands of merry Queenslanders will pile into another match-night institution afterwards, the Pineapple Hotel, in a celebration of the game.

“It’s just fantastic to see the Suns have some success, and I know a lot of Brisbane people who have the Suns as their second team,” Bird says. “I’m a Brisbane Lions fan, but if the Suns win, I’ll be a Suns fan next week.”