Quote:
Thoroughbreds introduced team to high life
BY JOSH MASSOUD AND JAMES PHELPS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AUGUST 04, 2009 12:00AM SHARE
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WHEN the Brisbane Broncos were established in 1988, the club's founding fathers wanted their players to be more than just footballers.
The gladiators who went into battle each weekend might have been Broncos but the true ambition of those businessmen was to develop them into a better breed than the unflattering stereotype attached to rugby league players.
With the right advice and professional polish, the dream was to break them from wild Broncos on the field and into prized thoroughbreds off it to give them opportunities away from football to broaden their horizons and diversify their interests.
Until the Super League war in the mid-1990s, there was nothing to suggest the Thoroughbreds engaged in any sinister dealings such as under-the-table payments.
But their influence waned as salaries soared during the bitter split, only to be revived by former coach Wayne Bennett as the pay scale corrected itself.
Permanently concerned with improving his charges as not only players but also as people, Bennett is understood to have overseen the re-incarnated Thoroughbreds' exclusive membership.
It's believed members paid an annual fee to be part of the clique and in return received inside access at away trips and official functions.
Most members past and present belong to the cream of Queensland's business set. They include current Thoroughbreds chairman and outdoor-furniture king Craig Davison, developer John Geaney, printing czar Tony Scanlon, and hotelier Tony Burnett.
But it was former Thoroughbred Ken Talbot Queensland's $800 million mining magnate who invited inquiry into the group's activities.
Facing seven years' jail for handing $300,000 to jailed former Queensland minister Gordon Nuttall, Talbot was alleged during the trial to have paid Broncos in cash. The claim was made under oath by Don Nissen, former Broncos chairman now head of Talbot's personal board.
Legal sources believe Talbot's trial - its likely defence relying on demonstrating his generosity, which means detailing names and amounts - will have plenty of Broncos figures nervous.
