Brisbane Rugby League premiership should not be confused with Brisbane Rugby League (2001).
| Brisbane Rugby League | |
| Inaugural: | 1922 (1909 as QRL) |
| Folded: | 1997 |
| Championtag: | Last premiers |
| Champion: | Redcliffe Dolphins |
| Season: | 1997 |
| Most Champs: | Fortitude Valley Diehards |
| Count: | 16 |
| Related Comps: | Brisbane Rugby League (2001) |
The Brisbane Rugby League premiership was a rugby league football competition in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first held in 1922 and for every year until 1997. The competition was reinstated in 2001, known as the FOGS premiership under the Queensland Cup. The competition consists of Brisbane's top six rugby league clubs. Each participating team is a feeder club for the Queensland Cup.
Prior to 1922, the competition was conducted under the auspices of the Queensland Rugby League. Until the 1980s it was the premier sporting competition in Brisbane, attracting large crowds and broad media coverage. The Brisbane Rugby League however, had been in slow decline for some 15 years as large numbers of its players left to compete in the more lucrative Sydney Rugby League, and began to lose popular interest with the creation of the Brisbane Broncos in 1988. Also in 1988, the Sydney Rugby League de facto superseded the Brisbane Rugby League by going national and including the Brisbane and Gold Coast clubs. However, the BRL maintained legal top-flight status until the advent of the national Australian Rugby League premiership in 1995, which superseded both Brisbane Rugby League premiership and the Sydney Rugby League premiership. The Brisbane Rugby League premiership then became a second-tier competition until it ceased and was fully replaced at this level by the Queensland Cup before the 1998 season. The FOGS Cup, a third-tier competition under the NRL and Queensland Cup, changed its name to the Brisbane Rugby League in 2016.
The Queensland Rugby Football League (QRFL) was formed in 1908 by seven former rugby union players who were dissatisfied with the administration of the Queensland Rugby Union (QRU). The new organisation was attacked by both the local press and the QRU for introducing professionalism, which they claimed would destroy the sport. The "founding fathers" of the QRFL included John Fihelly, an Australian Labor Party Member of Parliament who became Minister for Railways and Deputy Premier.
The first official club competition kicked off in Brisbane on 8 May 1909. Norths played against Souths before a handful of spectators at Brisbane Cricket Ground.[1] Matches were played under the auspices of the Queensland Amateur Rugby Football League (later renamed Queensland Rugby League). The foundation clubs were:
| Season | Grand Final Information | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premiers | Score | Runners-Up | ||||
| 1909 | align=left | Fortitude Valley | 22–4 | align=left | South Brisbane | |
| 1910 | align=left | Ipswich | 17–2 | align=left | Toombul | |
| 1911 | align=left | Fortitude Valley-Toombul | 13–2 | align=left | Ipswich B | |
| 1912 | align=left | Brisbane Natives | 10–0 | align=left | South Brisbane | |
| 1913 | align=left | West End | 5–3 | align=left | Brisbane Natives | |
| 1914 | align=left | Fortitude Valley | 18–8 | align=left | West End | |
| 1915 | align=left | Fortitude Valley | 10–9 | align=left | West Brisbane | |
| 1916 | align=left | West Brisbane | 4–2 | align=left | Fortitude Valley | |
| 1917 | align=left | Fortitude Valley | 13–5 | align=left | Brothers Old Boys/Merthyrs | |
| 1918 | align=left | Fortitude Valley | 16–12 | align=left | Brothers Old Boys/Merthyrs | |
| 1919 | align=left | Fortitude Valley | 28–2 | align=left | Coorparoo | |
| 1920 | align=left | West Brisbane | 16–8 | align=left | Brothers Old Boys | |
| 1921 | align=left | Carltons | 12–10 | align=left | Coorparoo | |
In 1922 the Brisbane Rugby Football League (Brisbane Rugby Football League, later Brisbane Rugby League) was formed out of dissatisfaction with the way the Queensland Rugby League ran the game. Those involved took particular exception to the salary being earned by Harry Sunderland as secretary of the Queensland Rugby League. The Brisbane Rugby League took control of the local competition. Competing in the Brisbane Rugby League competition that year were Brothers, Carltons, Coorparoo, University, Valley and Wests, with Past Grammars rejoining in 1924. Although the Queensland Rugby League attempted to regain control of the Brisbane Rugby League competition in 1923 and 1924, the Brisbane Rugby League remained steadfast and the dispute simmered into the next decade. so dire did the situation become, that by the late 1920s, the Queensland Rugby League commenced its own competition involving Ipswich clubs and two supporting Brisbane clubs.
Until 1932 Brisbane Exhibition Ground was the home of rugby league in the city. The complicated arrangement between the Brisbane Rugby League, Queensland Rugby League and Royal National Association (who administered the Exhibition Ground) led to Brisbane Cricket Ground being used for rugby league matches.
In 1933 district football was introduced to provide community support and player equalisation. This meant that players had to live within a certain distance of their club. Accordingly, Brisbane was divided into Eastern Suburbs (incorporating Coorparoo and Wynnum), Southern Suburbs (incorporating Carltons), Western Suburbs, Northern Suburbs (incorporating Past Grammars), Fortitude Valley and Past Brothers (whose players had to prove that they had attended a Christian Brothers school). In 1934, the University Amateur Rugby League Club folded and disappeared from the competition.
In 1953 the friction between the Queensland Rugby League and Brisbane Rugby League ended, with the Brisbane Rugby League being replaced by the Brisbane division of the Queensland Rugby League.[2] Former Brisbane Rugby League chairman and Queensland Rugby League secretary Ron McAullife eventually secured the use of Lang Park as a permanent home for rugby league in Queensland. Teams that joined the Brisbane Rugby League competition around this time were South Coast (1952–1953), Wynnum-Manly (1951) and Redcliffe (1960).
A then-record crowd at Lang Park of 19,824 saw Northern Suburbs defeat Fortitude Valley in the Brisbane Rugby League grand final in September 1961.[3]
In 1967 the Queensland Rugby League removed the residential qualifications for players in Brisbane Rugby League clubs, meaning that players did not have to reside in their certain suburbs to play for their teams. This reduced community support for teams, and club decisions began to be made on a more commercial basis.
This coincided with the commencement of television broadcasts of Brisbane Rugby League games in the same year. The money made from jersey sponsorships and advertising hoardings at grounds was not able to compete with poker machine money available to Sydney Rugby League clubs in the Sydney Rugby League, and an increasing number of players left the Brisbane Rugby League. This also affected the popularity of the Bulimba Cup which had been held between the cities of Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba since the 1930s.
In 1978 the premiership trophy, the Kirks Cup was replaced by the Winfield Cup.
The Queensland Rugby League commissioned Eric White Associates to investigate the administrative structure of the game in Queensland in 1977. One of the recommendations was the creation of a statewide competition. The Winfield State League was created in 1982. The State League competition ran in parallel to the Brisbane Rugby League competition from 1982 to 1995. Also, like with Sydney's competition, Brisbane's competition was also called the Winfield Cup during the 1980s, due to sponsorship from Winfield cigarettes. The Queensland Cup would eventually replace both the State league and the Brisbane Rugby League premiership in 1996 and 1998.
In the 1980s, two further teams were added to the Brisbane Rugby League competition: Ipswich (1986) and Logan (1987).
Despite some New South Wales Rugby League (Sydney Rugby League) premiership games being re-broadcast during late night timeslots from the late 1970s, the Brisbane Rugby League remained the more popular competition in Queensland until 1988 with the weekly live broadcast of the Match of the Round being played at Lang Park.
In 1986 the New South Wales Rugby League decided to allow a team from Brisbane to enter the Sydney Rugby League premiership. While the New South Wales Rugby League was originally negotiating a Brisbane team sponsored by the Queensland Rugby League, a private bid in the form of the Brisbane Broncos was instead accepted by the New South Wales Rugby League. The Brisbane Broncos debuted in the Sydney Rugby League premiership in 1988.
As the Broncos began to represent Brisbane at rugby league in the public eye the Brisbane Rugby League competition entered the terminal phase of its decline. The dominance of the Brisbane Broncos in the media resulted in the Brisbane Rugby League losing live coverage of games and receiving only minor interest from the sports media. The drop in interest saw the Brisbane Rugby League, its clubs and its junior development base incurring significant and crippling financial losses. Several longstanding clubs were not able to survive the impact over the coming years.
From 1988, Brisbane Rugby League players weren't chosen to represent Queensland again. The Brisbane Rugby League premiership was fully superseded by the Australian Rugby League Premiership which took nationwide first-class status in 1995. The Brisbane Rugby League became a state competition from 1995-97 until the Queensland Cup, which became a league-style competition in 1998, superseded the Brisbane Rugby League as the top state league. Redcliffe won the last Brisbane Rugby League Grand Final in 1997 defeating Eastern Suburbs 35–6, and the league was then declared defunct.
On 26 September 2014, the South East Queensland Division announced that they will be scrapping the existing FOGS Cup structure and reforming the Brisbane Rugby League as the state's secondary competition.[4] Legally, although they share the same name, this competition is completely separate from the original BRL.
| Colours | Club Name | Club Nickname | First Season(s) | Last Season(s) | BRL Premiership Seasons | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=05% | Premiership/s | width=05% | Runners-Up/s | |||||
| align=centre | Broncos | 1994 | 1995 | 0 | 0 | |||
| align=centre | Brisbane Brothers | Leprechauns | 1930 | 1997 | 9 | 10 | ||
| align=centre | Eastern Suburbs | Tigers | 1917 | 1997 | 8 | 16 | ||
| align=centre | Fortitude Valley | Diehards | 1909 | 1995 | 17 | 14 | ||
| align=centre | Ipswich | Jets | 1986 | 1997 | 0 | 2 | ||
| align=centre | Logan (City) | Scorpions | 1988 | 1997 | 0 | 0 | ||
| align=centre | Northern Suburbs | Devils | 1920 | 1997 | 13 | 9 | ||
| align=centre | Christian Brothers | Old Boys | 1917, 1920 | 1918, 1929 | 1 | 1 | ||
| align=centre | Redcliffe | Dolphins | 1947 | 1997 | 4 | 6 | ||
| align=centre | Southern Suburbs | Magpies | 1919 | 1997 | 8 | 9 | ||
| align=centre | South Queensland (Reserve Grade) | Crushers | 1994 | 1995 | 0 | 0 | ||
| align=centre | University | Students | 1920 | 1933 | 2 | 0 | ||
| align=centre | Western Suburbs | Panthers | 1915 | 1997 | 10 | 8 | ||
| align=centre | Wynnum-Manly | Seagulls | 1951 | 1997 | 4 | 1 | ||
(Reserve Grade) = Reserve Grade side to the Senior Grade side.
See main article: articles and Brisbane rugby league team. Selected players from the Brisbane Rugby League clubs, represented Brisbane in a representative team called Brisbane Firsts or Brisbane Capitals against various Sydney Rugby League clubs or against Sydney Firsts or Sydney Capitals
Teams in bold still existed during the at the end of the 1st-grade competition in 1994.
| All Time Ladder | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 1st season | |||||||
| 1 | Valley-Toombul | 1911 | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 70.00% | |
| 2 | Natives | 1912 | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 68.18% | |
| 3 | Fortitude Valley | 1909 | 1,382 | 831 | 506 | 45 | 60.13% | |
| 4 | Ipswich B | 1911 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 60.00% | |
| 5 | Toowong | 1914 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 54.55% | |
| 6 | Norths Devils | 1920 | 1,266 | 681 | 548 | 37 | 53.79% | |
| 7 | South Brisbane | 1909 | 58 | 31 | 27 | 0 | 53.45% | |
| 8 | Seagulls-Diehards | 1988 | 36 | 19 | 16 | 1 | 52.78% | |
| 9 | Ipswich A | 1910 | 19 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 52.63% | |
| 10 | Past Brothers | 1931 | 1,126 | 569 | 519 | 38 | 50.53% | |
| 11 | Redcliffe Dolphins | 1960 | 733 | 370 | 345 | 18 | 50.48% | |
| 12 | South Queensland Crushers | 1994 | 22 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 50.00% | |
| 13 | Wests Panthers | 1915 | 1,353 | 668 | 637 | 48 | 49.37% | |
| 14 | Easts Tigers | 1917 | 1,322 | 636 | 640 | 46 | 48.11% | |
| 15 | Souths Magpies | 1919 | 1,286 | 612 | 638 | 36 | 47.59% | |
| 16 | Past Brothers (Merthyr) | 1917 | 182 | 86 | 84 | 12 | 47.25% | |
| 17 | Ipswich Jets | 1986 | 171 | 80 | 82 | 9 | 46.78% | |
| =18 | Ipswich West End | 1916 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 40.00% | |
| =18 | Wynnum | 1914 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 40.00% | |
| 20 | Toombul | 1909 | 18 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 38.89% | |
| 21 | University | 1920 | 200 | 76 | 116 | 8 | 38.00% | |
| 22 | Bulimba | 1915 | 19 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 36.84% | |
| 23 | Wynnum-Manly Seagulls | 1951 | 852 | 303 | 530 | 19 | 35.56% | |
| =24 | West End | 1913 | 48 | 16 | 29 | 3 | 33.33% | |
| =24 | North Brisbane | 1909 | 33 | 11 | 22 | 0 | 33.33% | |
| =24 | East Brisbane | 1910 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 33.33% | |
| =24 | Kurilpa | 1912 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 33.33% | |
| =24 | West End-Grammars | 1920 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 33.33% | |
| =29 | Westerns | 1917 | 22 | 7 | 13 | 2 | 31.82% | |
| =29 | Brisbane Broncos | 1994 | 22 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 31.82% | |
| 31 | Woolloongabba | 1912 | 28 | 8 | 14 | 6 | 28.57% | |
| 32 | South Coast | 1952 | 35 | 8 | 27 | 0 | 22.86% | |
| 33 | Logan City Scorpions | 1988 | 130 | 28 | 94 | 8 | 21.54% | |
| 34 | Railways | 1913 | 39 | 8 | 30 | 1 | 20.51% | |
| 35 | Wynnum District | 1931 | 56 | 8 | 46 | 2 | 14.29% | |
| 36 | Ipswich Starlights | 1916 | 9 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 11.11% | |
| 37 | Wattles | 1916 | 12 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 08.33% | |
| =38 | Bulimba-Railways | 1920 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 00.00% | |
| =38 | South Brisbane United | 1911 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 00.00% | |