The
Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional
rugby league football club based in the city of
Brisbane, the capital of the state of
Queensland. Founded in 1988, the Broncos play in Australasia's elite competition, the
National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. They have won five premierships in the ARL / NRL Premiership and were winners of the only breakaway
Super League competition in 1997. The Broncos have also achieved four minor premierships during their twenty-two years in competition, making them the League's most successful club over the past two decades. Brisbane have never been defeated in a
grand final and, since 1991, have never failed to qualify for the finals. The club has one of the largest fan bases in Australia with an average attendance of 34,587 in the
2009 NRL season and also records the highest annual revenue of all NRL clubs. They have also been named Australia's most popular and most watched football team of any code.
The club was founded in 1988 as part of the
Winfield Cup's national expansion, becoming, along with the
Gold Coast-Tweed Giants, one of Queensland's first two participants in the
New South Wales Rugby League premiership. The Broncos later became a dominant force in that competition before playing a significant role in the
Super League War of the mid-1990s, then continuing to compete successfully in the reunified National Rugby League competition of today.
The Broncos are based in the Brisbane suburb of
Red Hill where their training ground and Leagues club are located, but they play their home games at
Milton's
Suncorp Stadium. They are also the only publicly listed sporting club on the
Australian Securities Exchange, trading as Brisbane Broncos Limited ().
History
Queensland’s success in the 1980s'
State of Origin, in addition to the inclusion of a Combined Brisbane team in the
mid-week competition, convinced the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) to invite a Queensland-based team into the competition.
After tough competition between the various syndicates for the Brisbane license, the
Queensland Rugby League chose the bid of former
Brisbane Rugby League (BRL) players,
Barry Maranta and
Paul "Porky" Morgan.
Darren Lockyer playing for the Broncos in 2004. Lockyer made his Broncos debut in 1995 and is the current captain of the team.
The Broncos secured the services of
Australian Kangaroos captain
Wally Lewis and former
BRL coach
Wayne Bennett.
The team made their
first grade debut 1988 against NSWRL premiers
Manly-Warringah, defeating them 44-10, but after this promising start they failed to make the finals.
In 1989 they won the midweek knockout competition, the
Panasonic Cup. The club first tasted
premiership success in 1992, and
again in 1993, defeating the
St. George Dragons in both years.
In
1995, the
Super League War broke out. After threats of expulsion from the NSWRL, the Broncos were one of the first clubs to sign with the new league and all players followed suit. Broncos CEO
John Ribot moved to take over the running of the rebel
Super League, leading to a perception that the conflict was orchestrated by the club.
Brisbane won the only
Super League premiership in
1997, before winning the first National Rugby League trophy in the re-unified
1998 competition.
was disappointing for the club with a terrible early-season form hindering their attempt at a third consecutive premiership losing 8 of their first 10 matches. Club legend
Allan Langer retired mid-season, perhaps as a result of the team's form. Despite the club's mid-season turnaround, which resulted in qualification for the finals after an 11-match winning streak, the team was eliminated by the
Cronulla Sharks in the first week of the finals. However, the Broncos' rebounded in 2000 with their fifth premiership, defeating the
Sydney Roosters. The game marked the retirement of veterans
Kevin Walters and
Michael Hancock.
Allan Langer returned to the club in
2002 for one season before eventually retiring. 2002 was also the beginning of Brisbane's "post-Origin slump", which has haunted the club in the years since. Many players represent
Queensland in the State of Origin series, with 7 Broncos players on average included in the Queensland Origin team. This extra workload has caused a loss of form for the club immediately after the series, evidenced in 2003 when the ladder-leading Broncos lost 10 of their last 11 games. Despite faring better in
2004 and
2005, the team still struggled in the latter stages of the season, losing all of their finals matches.
In
2006, after a strong early and mid-season performance, the Broncos again entered the post-Origin slump, losing 5 consecutive games. However, they reversed this run of form, winning 6 of their last 7 games including the premiership decider against the
Melbourne Storm and keeping their perfect Grand Final record intact.
After a dismal 2007 season in which they only scraped into the finals, coach Wayne Bennett announced he would leave at the end of 2008 after twenty-one years as coach.
Ivan Henjak, a former rugby league player who had been assistant coach with the Broncos since the beginning of 2006, was named their second-ever coach, commencing as coach for the 2009 season.
Season summaries
Players
2010 Squad
Current squad for the 2010 season.
The Brisbane Broncos in action in 2004.
Notable players
The representative playing list of the Brisbane Broncos has traditionally been extensive due to the club's premiership success and being the dominant Queensland team in the competition for the majority of its participation. Consequently, there have been a large number of Queensland Maroons in the team. In 2007, a 20 man legends team was announced to celebrate the club's 20 year anniversary.
Honours
Statistics and records
The Brisbane Broncos are the most successful club in terms of percentage of total games won, having won 65.80% of their games. This is more than 5% better than the second-placed club. In their twenty completed seasons, the club has made a total of six Grand Finals, winning each time, and have made the finals for the past sixteen seasons. They are one of only two clubs to have won the
World Club Challenge twice, and were the first club to do so on British soil. They also won the now defunct
Panasonic Cup in
1989.
Current team captain Darren Lockyer holds the record for the most First Grade games for the club. Lockyer also holds the record for the most points scored for the club, tallying 1,138 since his debut in 1995, and the club record of 272 points in a season, having achieved this in 1998.
Steve Renouf holds the record for the most career tries for the club with 142. Renouf also shares the club record for the most number of tries in a season with
Darren Smith at 23.
Lote Tuqiri's tally of 26 points from three tries and seven goals in a single match against the
Northern Eagles remains the club record for most individual points in a game.
holds the record for most goals in a game kicking ten in a round one clash of 2008, breaking the previous mark of nine kicked by Lockyer in 1998 and matched by
Michael De Vere in 2001. Parker converted ten from ten goals in the Broncos 48-12 win over the
Penrith Panthers in which Parker scored 24 points placing him in equal second place on the most points in a match tally. Six players have scored four tries in a match for the Brisbane Broncos including
Steve Renouf,
Wendell Sailor,
Karmichael Hunt,
Justin Hodges,
Denan Kemp and
Israel Folau.
[2006 Official Rugby League Annual. Edited by David Middleton, Published by News Magazines, Surrey Hills, Sydney] Renouf achieved this feat five times from 1991 to 1998.
The club's biggest winning margin is 65 points, achieved in 2007 in a 71-6 victory over the
Newcastle Knights. Their heaviest defeat is a 56-0 loss by the Canberra Raiders on the 1st August 2009.
Stadium
The Brisbane Broncos, at the then-ANZ Stadium (1993-2003).
In their first five seasons, the Broncos played their matches at
Lang Park, the ground considered to be the home of rugby league in Queensland. However, following ongoing conflict with the Queensland Rugby League and Lang Park Trust, the team relocated to
ANZ Stadium in 1993.
The club's home match attendance, which had averaged 19,637 at Lang Park, increased to 43,200 at the new ground in the first season following the club's premiership title in the previous season.
However, despite the team's second premiership in 1993, crowds gradually declined and it was not until 2002 that the club again registered more than the 1996 average attendance of 23,712.
View of the current Brisbane Broncos home ground, Suncorp Stadium.
With the Queensland Government's $280,000,000 redevelopment of Lang Park, the team moved back to the refurbished and renamed Suncorp Stadium upon its completion in mid-2003. The more centrally-located stadium has begun to attract larger crowds, with the 2006 average attendance of 31,208 being significantly higher than the
Newcastle Knights with 21,848 and about double the regular season competition average of 15,601.
The club record attendance for a regular season match is 58,593, set against the St. George Dragons in the final round of the 1993 season. The record attendance for a match at Suncorp Stadium is 52,255 set in the semi-final match of the 2008 season, against the
St. George Illawarra Dragons.
Emblem and colours
The club's original logo, used from 1988 to 1999.
It had originally been planned for the Brisbane Broncos to adopt a logo incorporating both a
kangaroo and a stylised "Q" which had been featured in the logo for the Queensland Rugby League for many years. However, with the
Australian national rugby league team also known as the Kangaroos, this was deemed inappropriate and conflicting. The state flower the
Cooktown Orchid and the
Poinsettia which had long been used by Brisbane representative teams in the
Bulimba Cup and midweek knockout competitions was also ruled out, along with other
Australian animals such as the
brumby,
possum,
galah and the
kookaburra, which was used on Brisbane's Kookaburra Queen
paddleships.
Having wanted to continue with the use of
alliteration for local sporting teams such as the
Brisbane Bullets and
Brisbane Bears, the club's directors eventually decided on the nickname
Broncos.
The original club logo was first featured in the Broncos' inaugural season in the premiership in 1988 and was used until 1999. It used a mostly
gold colour scheme, in line with the predominant colour on the team jerseys. In 2000, the club adopted a new logo with a more
maroon design, which was much closer to the traditional colour associated with Queensland rugby league and Queensland sport in general.
This design continues to be used to date.
Traditionally, the colours of the Brisbane Broncos have been maroon, white and gold, which have all long been linked to the history of rugby league in Queensland. Initially, the founders of the club favoured the official blue and gold colours of
Brisbane City Council. However, Sydney advertiser
John Singleton advised the board that "Queenslanders had been booing players wearing blue for more than three-quarters of a century."
As a result, the traditional maroon and white colours of Queensland along with gold, symbolising the Queensland sunshine,
were adopted as the club's colours.
In the inaugural 1988 season, the club's jersey design featured the top third being gold, the middle being alternating hoops of maroon and white and the bottom third being maroon. Although this design featured gold strongly, it did not please everyone as the jersey had to differentiate from the maroon and white of
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the maroon of the
Queensland State of Origin team.
Following a number of design changes in the 1990s including a predominantly white jersey from 1997 to 1998, blue was added to the jersey in 2001 as a minor colour to show the aforementioned historical link with the colours of Brisbane. However, this was later dropped from the design in favour of a mainly maroon jersey with gold trim.
At the 1995
Rugby League World Sevens tournament, the club introduced a new combination of jersey colours - mauve, aqua and white. Brisbane Broncos Marketing Manager Shane Edwards stated that it "will become our Sevens strip... but we will never change the Broncos' colours." In 2001, following the release of the club's predominantly white with navy-blue and maroon away jersey, the National Rugby League ordered the club to produce a third jersey since the new away jersey clashed with the home jerseys of the
Penrith Panthers, Melbourne Storm and
New Zealand Warriors. An aqua strip using the same design as the jerseys used from 1999 to 2001 was worn, which was much derided by the local media. Following two years of public pressure the club dropped the jersey in favour of the design worn against Newcastle in 2003.
Image:Brisbane Broncos home jersey 1988.svg|1988-1991
Image:Brisbane Broncos home jersey 1992.svg|1992-1996
Image:Brisbane Broncos home jersey 1997.svg|1997-1998
Image:Brisbane Broncos home jersey 1999.svg|1999-2001
Image:Brisbane Broncos home jersey 2002.svg|2002-2009Supporters
The Brisbane broncos have the largest fan base of any rugby league club in Australia.
Notable fans
Corporate
The Broncos are the only publicly listed NRL club. The parent company of the Brisbane Broncos is Nationwide News Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of
News Limited, which as of 30 June 2007, owns 68.87% of Broncos shares.
John Ribot, a former first grade rugby league player in Queensland and New South Wales, was the club’s original
chief executive officer (CEO). Ribot left when he signed to become the CEO of the rebel Australian rugby league competition
Super League. (p. 24,112) Shane Edwards, the Broncos Marketing Manager at the time, was promoted to CEO and later resigned. Bruno Cullen, who had been with the Broncos' off-field staff since 1989, became the club's third CEO in 2003.
are the major sponsors of the Broncos.
Nova 106.9 are the main radio sponsors after taking over from rival station
B105 FM in late 2006. Live broadcasts of all Broncos matches are provided by
612 ABC Brisbane except if they play on Monday night, in which case
4MMM do so.
Channel Nine Queensland also sponsors the Broncos, although former player
Shane Webcke is signed to rival
Seven Queensland.
Footnotes
