The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league club based in the city of Brisbane, Queensland. The Broncos play in Australasia's elite competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. They have won six premierships during their twenty years in competition, making them the league's most successful club over the past two decades.

The club was founded in 1988 as part of the New South Wales Rugby League premiership's national expansion, becoming, along with the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants, one of Queensland's first two participants in the Winfield Cup. The Broncos later played a significant role in the Super League War of the mid-1990s before 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.^[1] 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.^[1]

Darren Lockyer playing for the Broncos in 2004. Lockyer made his Broncos debut in 1995 and is the current captain of the team.

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.^[1][3] Brisbane won the only Super League premiership in 1997, before winning the first National Rugby League trophy in the re-unified 1998 competition.^[2]

1999 was disappointing for the club with terrible early-season form hindering their attempt at a third consecutive premiership. 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. This was the last NRL Grand Final played in daylight hours and a game which saw the retirement of veterans Kevin Walters and Michael Hancock.^[2]

The 2006 Grand final at Stadium Australia.

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.^[2] 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.^[5] 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 for the 2009 season.^[6]

Season summaries

Brisbane Broncos lost a play-off for fifth in 1989, which is counted as a final game.

Emblem and colours

The club's original logo, used from 1988 to 1999.

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.^[2] 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."^[7] As a result, the traditional maroon and white colours of Brisbane Bullimba Cup sides along with gold, symbolising the Queensland sunshine,^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[2]

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."^[9] 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.^[2]

<gallery caption="Home jerseys used by the Brisbane Broncos" perrow="5" align="center"> 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-present </gallery>

Stadium

The Brisbane Broncos, at the then-ANZ Stadium (1993-2003).

View of the current Brisbane Broncos home ground, Suncorp Stadium.

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 50,612, set in the third round of the 2008 season against the North Queensland Cowboys.^[10]

Statistics and records

The Brisbane Broncos are the most successful club in the history of the competition in terms of percentage of total games won, having won 65.80% of their games since their inception. This is more than 5% better than the second-placed club.^[12] 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.^[2]

Current team captain Darren Lockyer holds the record for the most First Grade games for the club.

Darren Lockyer holds the record for the most points scored for the club, tallying 1,138 since his debut in 1995. He also holds 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.^[13] Corey Parker 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.^[14] Five players have scored four tries in a match for the Brisbane Broncos including Steve Renouf, Wendell Sailor, Karmichael Hunt, Justin Hodges and Denan Kemp.^[13] 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.^[15] Their heaviest defeat was a 50?4 loss to the Melbourne Storm in 2005, a record which was equalled when they lost to the Parramatta Eels 68-22 in 2007.^[16]

2008 Squads

The Brisbane Broncos have 25 main signed players for the 2008 season.^[17] The Brisbane Broncos also field a team in the Under 20's National Youth Competition.^[18]

The Brisbane Broncos in action in 2004.

Notable players

For a full list of Broncos representatives, see Brisbane Broncos Representatives

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.^[19]

Honours

Corporate

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.^[20] 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.^[2]

Channel Nine Queensland are the major sponsors of the Broncos, this is despite two former players being signed with rival station Seven. Nova 106.9 are the main radio sponsors after taking over from rival station B105 FM in late 2006. 612 ABC Brisbane broadcasts all Broncos matches live, and in the past 4MMM have done so.

Footnotes

External links

Official Sites

• Broncos Official Web Page
• Broncos Leagues Club

Statistics & Information Sites

• Rugby League Tables
• RL1908 Broncos History

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