Brisbane Broncos
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. 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.The Broncos secured the services of Australian Kangaroos captain Wally Lewis and former BRL coach Wayne Bennett. The team made their first grade debut in 1988 against reigning 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.
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. The game was 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 and the extra workload has caused a loss of form for the club immediately after the series. The Broncos average about 7 players out for every Origin game. This was 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 for the 2009 season.
Season summaries
| Competition | Games Played | Games Won | Games Drawn | Games Lost | Ladder Position | P | R | M | F | W | Coach | Captain | Main Article |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 22 | 14 | 0 | 8 | 7 / 16 | | | | |||||
| | 22 (1) | 14 (0) | 0 (0) | 8 (1) | 5 / 16 | | |||||||
| | 22 (3) | 16 (1) | 1 (0) | 5 (2) | 2 / 16 | | | | |||||
| | 22 | 13 | 0 | 9 | 7 / 16 | | |||||||
| | 22 (2) | 18 (2) | 0 (0) | 4 (0) | 1 / 16 | | | | | | |||
| | 22 (4) | 16 (4) | 0 (0) | 6 (0) | 5 / 16 | | | | |||||
| | 22 (2) | 13 (1) | 1 (0) | 8 (1) | 5 / 16 | | | ||||||
| | 22 (2) | 17 (0) | 0 (0) | 5 (2) | 3 / 20 | | | ||||||
| | 21 (2) | 17 (0) | 0 (0) | 4 (2) | 2 / 20 | | | ||||||
| | 18 (2) | 14 (2) | 1 (0) | 3 (0) | 1 / 10 | | | | | ||||
| | 24 (4) | 18 (3) | 1 (0) | 5 (1) | 1 / 20 | | | | | ||||
| | 24 (1) | 13 (0) | 2 (0) | 9 (1) | 8 / 17 | | | ||||||
| | |||||||||||||
| | 26 (3) | 18 (3) | 2 (0) | 6 (0) | 1 / 14 | | | | | ||||
| | 26 (3) | 14 (1) | 1 (0) | 11 (2) | 5 / 14 | | | | |||||
| | 24 (2) | 16 (1) | 1 (0) | 7 (1) | 3 / 15 | | | ||||||
| | 24 (1) | 12 (0) | 0 (0) | 12 (1) | 8 / 15 | | | ||||||
| | 24 (2) | 16 (0) | 1 (0) | 7 (2) | 3 / 15 | | | ||||||
| | 24 (2) | 15 (0) | 0 (0) | 9 (2) | 3 / 15 | | | | |||||
| | 24 (4) | 14 (3) | 0 (0) | 10 (1) | 3 / 15 | | | | |||||
| | 24 (1) | 11 (0) | 0 (0) | 13 (1) | 8 / 16 | | | ||||||
| | 24 (2) | 14 (1) | 1 (0) | 9 (1) | 5 / 16 | | | ||||||
| | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | / 16 | next season | | | |||||
Emblem and colours
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 Cooktown Orchid which had long been used by Brisbane clubs in the Bulimba Cup 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 Brisbane Bullimba Cup sides 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.
Stadium
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, with the club failing, until 2002, to register more than the 1996 average of 23,712.
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 increasingly higher 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 50,612, set in the third round of the 2008 season against the North Queensland Cowboys.
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. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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 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.
2008 Squads
The Brisbane Broncos have 25 main signed players for the 2008 season. The Brisbane Broncos also field a team in the Under 20's National Youth Competition.Notable players
- For a full list of Broncos representatives, see Brisbane Broncos Representatives
Honours
Brisbane Broncos U/20 Toyota Cup
- Brisbane Broncos Toyota Cup 2008 Season
- Brisbane Broncos Toyota Cup Records
- Brisbane Broncos Toyota Cup 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. 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.WOW Sight and Sound 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 fully sponsors the Broncos, this is despite the fact former club legend Shane Webcke is signed to rival Seven Queensland.
Famous fans, amongst others, include Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd, treasurer Wayne Swan, musicians Bernard Fanning, Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes, media personality Rod Young and former tennis champion Pat Rafter
Footnotes
External links
Official SitesStatistics & Information Sites
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday October 09, 2008 at 18:37:41 PDT (GMT -0700)
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