Brisbane Lions captain Michael Voss with the 2001 premiership cup

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How were they established or allowed entry into the competition, what support were they given by the governing body, what were the expectations of them in their early years and when did they or will they win the premiership?

The VFL/AFL has a long history of allowing new teams to enter the competition. In 1908, over a hundred years before Gold Coast started playing in the AFL, Richmond and University were permitted entry.

In Richmond's initial two years, while the Tigers were unable to rise above the bottom two places on the ladder, they were still able to win six matches out of 18 in their first two seasons.

In  1916 they made the  finals, but there were only four teams playing and they finished fourth. In 1920, their 13th season, they won the VFL premiership. Unfortunately for Richmond supporters it has now been 30 years since their last premiership.

University lasted just seven years in the VFL and while its first three years were reasonable, the final four were not, with the team winning just two matches - none in its final two seasons.

At the end of 1924, with the VFL looking to expand the competition and also have an even number of teams, entry was granted to Footscray, North Melbourne and Hawthorn.

Both Footscray and North Melbourne had been applying well before then, but were stymied because other clubs feared they would lose their recruiting grounds. Not much has changed in the history of the competition on that issue.

The three VFA clubs entered the League without any favours when it came to player concessions or financial incentives -they were simply given a place.

Again, that is significantly different to what has happened since, although the Brisbane Bears would argue that what they got was hardly more than a place in the AFL in 1987.

History shows that even back in 1925 the VFL was a hard competition.

In the first three seasons the three new teams shared the bottom three places on the ladder. Footscray climbed to ninth in its fourth year in the VFL, but it took North until its eighth season to climb out of the bottom three places, and Hawthorn until its 12th season, when it grabbed ninth spot, relegating Footscray back into the bottom three.

Hawthorn took until its fifth season to win more than 10 matches; North Melbourne had achieved that in its fourth season, while Footscray rattled to that target in its third season.

As for anything like success, Footscray was the first to play finals in 1938, just 14 seasons after its entry, it took North Melbourne until its 21st season, while the Hawks waited 33 seasons.

Footscray played in and won its first premiership in 1954, in its 30th season. North Melbourne made the Grand Final in 1950, its 26th year, but had to wait until 1975 to win the premiership for the first time, in its 51st season of VFL football.

Hawthorn eventually made the finals in 1957, and waited just four more years to win its first premiership in 1961.

There is also some symmetry with the initial premiership wins of both Hawthorn and North Melbourne. Hawthorn beat Footscray in 1961 and North Melbourne beat Hawthorn in 1975.

I can't see the AFL waiting to assist Gold Coast or GWS if they take as long take as long as these three teams did to achieve finals football or even premierships.

The growth and development of the game in New South Wales and Queensland, while not totally reliant on the success of its AFL clubs, will benefit if they achieve success in the AFL competition.

The Sydney Swans, originally South Melbourne and relocated at the end of 1981, finally achieved a premiership in 2005 and the Brisbane Lions, after starting as the Bears and then merging with Fitzroy, struck gold in 2001.

Fifteen years after its very humble beginnings the Lions went onto win three premierships in a row, with arguably one of the greatest teams in VFL/AFL history.

West Coast, Adelaide and Port Adelaide were able to win premierships relatively quickly after entering the AFL, but we are still waiting on Fremantle, which is now in its 17th AFL season, to break its drought.

While it will be interesting to see how quickly Gold Coast and GWS take to play finals and win a premiership, there is even more interest in how much longer we have to wait to see the Western Bulldogs, with one premiership in its history as Footscray, end a run which has extended into its 57th season.

And when will St Kilda, who has come agonisingly close in the past two years, break through and end its 45-year premiership wait?

You may even spare a thought for Melbourne. Despite 12 premierships, the Demons have gone 46 seasons without a flag.

It all points to one simple fact. Premierships are extremely hard to win.