The 1990 Brisbane Broncos season was the third in the club's history. They competed in the NSWRL's 1990 Winfield Cup premiership and again improved on their previous year, finishing the regular season in second position before going on to come within one match of the grand final, but losing to eventual premiers, the Canberra Raiders.
Broncos players Chris Johns and Kevin Walters were selected to make their international débuts for the Australia national rugby league team in 1990.
The Broncos had some new faces for 1990 season, including Kevin Walters who was lured home from Canberra.[1] In order to increase the Broncos' success in the Winfield Cup, Wayne Bennett controversially sacked Wally Lewis as club captain and gave the role to centre Gene Miles. Miles had retired from representative football, and Bennett hoped he could remove the team's reliance on Lewis.
The Balmian Tigers were the last team unbeaten by the Broncos until their victory in Round 18 of the 1990 season. Brisbane finished the regular season in second position, qualifying for their first finals campaign. In the Preliminary Final against the Canberra Raiders the Broncos were knocked out 30-2 so finished the 1990 season in third place. Canberra then went on to win the competition. At the end of the season, Wally Lewis parted company with the Broncos, moving to the Gold Coast Seagulls.
| Round | Opponent | Result | Bro. | Opp. | Date | Venue | Crowd | Position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Western Suburbs Magpies | Draw | 12 | 12 | 18 Mar | Campbelltown Sports Ground | 9,670 | 8/16 | |
| 2 | Parramatta Eels | Win | 28 | 8 | 23 Mar | Lang Park | 22,003 | 4/16 | |
| 3 | Balmain Tigers | Loss | 16 | 18 | 1 Apr | Leichhardt Oval | 13,062 | 9/16 | |
| 4 | Manly Sea Eagles | Win | 14 | 12 | 8 Apr | Lang Park | 21,807 | 4/16 | |
| 5 | Penrith Panthers | Loss | 18 | 26 | 14 Apr | Lang Park | 22,842 | 8/16 | |
| 6 | Newcastle Knights | Win | 28 | 4 | 22 Apr | Newcastle ISC | 23,195 | 7/16 | |
| 7 | North Sydney Bears | Loss | 12 | 14 | 27 Apr | Lang Park | 20,801 | 9/16 | |
| 8* | Eastern Suburbs Roosters | Win | 36 | 12 | 13 May | Sydney Football Stadium | 5,794 | 6/16 | |
| 9 | Cronulla Sharks | Win | 20 | 8 | 18 May | Lang Park | 21,393 | 5/16 | |
| 10* | Gold Coast-Tweed Giants | Win | 30 | 14 | 3 Jun | Lang Park | 17,680 | 4/16 | |
| 11 | South Sydney Rabbitohs | Win | 34 | 6 | 10 Jun | Sydney Football Stadium | 10,059 | 2/16 | |
| 12* | Illawarra Steelers | Win | 36 | 6 | 17 Jun | Lang Park | 18,789 | 2/16 | |
| 13 | St George Dragons | Win | 18 | 14 | 23 Jun | Kogarah Oval | 8,187 | 2/16 | |
| 14 | Canberra Raiders | Win | 22 | 20 | 1 Jul | Lang Park | 32,124 | 1/16 | |
| 15 | Canterbury Bulldogs | Win | 26 | 8 | 6 Jul | Belmore Oval | 7,202 | 1/16 | |
| 16 | Western Suburbs Magpies | Win | 30 | 10 | 13 Jul | Lang Park | 15,906 | 1/16 | |
| 17 | Parramatta Eels | Win | 24 | 22 | 22 Jul | Parramatta Stadium | 20,138 | 1/16 | |
| 18 | Balmain Tigers | Win | 30 | 16 | 29 Jul | Lang Park | 32,168 | 1/16 | |
| 19 | Manly Sea Eagles | Loss | 4 | 18 | 5 Aug | Brookvale Oval | 16,656 | 1/16 | |
| 20 | Penrith Panthers | Loss | 2 | 18 | 12 Aug | Penrith Football Stadium | 15,000 | 2/16 | |
| 21 | Newcastle Knights | Win | 24 | 4 | 17 Aug | Lang Park | 24,282 | 2/16 | |
| 22 | North Sydney Bears | Win | 14 | 8 | 25 Aug | North Sydney Oval | 24,282 | 2/16 | |
| Qualif. Final | Penrith Panthers | Loss | 16 | 26 | 2 Sep | Sydney Football Stadium | 24,409 | ||
| Semi Final | Manly Sea Eagles | Win | 12 | 4 | 8 Sep | Sydney Football Stadium | 31,424 | ||
| Prelim. Final | Canberra Raiders | Loss | 4 | 32 | 16 Sep | Sydney Football Stadium | 31,628 |
| width=20 abbr="Position×" | width=175 | Team | width=20 abbr="Played" | Pld | width=20 abbr="Won" | W | width=20 abbr="Drawn" | D | width=20 abbr="Lost" | L | width=20 abbr="Points for" | PF | width=20 abbr="Points against" | PA | width=20 abbr="Points difference" | PD | width=20 abbr="Points" | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canberra Raiders | 22 | 16 | 1 | 5 | 532 | 245 | +287 | 33 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Brisbane Broncos | 22 | 16 | 1 | 5 | 478 | 278 | +200 | 33 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Penrith | 22 | 15 | 1 | 6 | 415 | 286 | +129 | 31 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Manly-Warringah | 22 | 15 | 0 | 7 | 395 | 255 | +125 | 30 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Balmain | 22 | 14 | 0 | 8 | 432 | 284 | +148 | 28 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Newcastle Knights | 22 | 13 | 2 | 7 | 344 | 305 | +39 | 28 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Canterbury-Bankstown | 22 | 12 | 1 | 9 | 354 | 291 | +65 | 25 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Parramatta | 22 | 12 | 1 | 9 | 387 | 347 | +40 | 25 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Illawarra | 22 | 11 | 1 | 10 | 366 | 361 | +5 | 23 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Cronulla-Sutherland | 22 | 11 | 0 | 11 | 370 | 359 | +11 | 22 | ||||||||||
| 11 | North Sydney | 22 | 10 | 0 | 12 | 322 | 298 | +24 | 20 | ||||||||||
| 12 | St. George | 22 | 8 | 0 | 14 | 371 | 399 | -28 | 16 | ||||||||||
| 13 | Western Suburbs | 22 | 6 | 1 | 15 | 323 | 433 | -110 | 13 | ||||||||||
| 14 | Eastern Suburbs | 22 | 6 | 1 | 15 | 283 | 547 | -264 | 13 | ||||||||||
| 15 | Gold Coast Seagulls | 22 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 233 | 567 | -334 | 8 | ||||||||||
| 16 | South Sydney | 22 | 2 | 0 | 20 | 302 | 652 | -350 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Player | Tries | Goals | FG | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 46/83 | 0 | 132 | |
| 15 | 3/4 | 0 | 66 | |
| 3 | 23/38 | 0 | 58 | |
| 11 | 0 | 0 | 44 | |
| 8 | 0 | 0 | 32 | |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 24 | |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 20 | |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 20 | |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 20 | |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 16 | |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 16 | |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| 1 | 1/1 | 0 | 6 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |