The effect of the Broncos in the 80s on the QRL

[Paullyboy]

Gday guys, ive got an assignment that im basing on the effects of the Broncos joining the NSWRL in 1988 on the Queensland Comp. Is there any good books/sites/anything that you guys would recommend, or if you have any personal input id happily accept it.


Cheers in advance guys,

 

[mud n blood]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

the effect ? :roll:

try "the broncos being the be all end all of rugby league in Queensland"

You want proof ?

Ring the QRL and ask them about what they think of media coverage and promotion of the local version of the game as opposed to what the Broncos get ......

We could write a novel on this sh!t !

 

[Paullyboy]

yeh well ill put a copy of my results on this site when im done if you's want(i better get a good mark!! 8) ).

I was born in 84 so i have no memory to base this on, just bits of information ive picked up along my life. What was the coverage of the Queensland Cup like back then? What year did the cup start? Was it always called the QlD cup?

Stuff like that im lookin at at the moment

 

[mud n blood]

The Qld Cup actually started in 1996. From 1982-1995, the State League was run as a in conjunction with the Brisbane RL premiership. From 1974-1981, only Country Championships were played (ie No Brisbane, but Gold Coast was included). From 1962-1973 (excluding 1967), a State Championship tournament was played, where all sides were representative (ie North Qld, Central Qld, Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Wide Bay).

In 1996 and 1997, the Brisbane RL premiership finals were played directly following the Qld Cup grand final, but the prestige was dimmed somewhat because of having just played a Qld Cup grand final. So in 1998, the Qld Cup was adopted as the premier competition in the state.

It has been called the Channel 9 Qld Cup, Bundy Gold Cup, and Queensland Cup - so far !

There is some discontent from a number of Brisbane-based clubs as to the running, the success (?), the necessity, and the cost of the statewide concept.

Give us some specific questions to discuss, and I'm sure a number of people here will give varying, but definitive views.

 

[chileman]

Goodluck on your assignment Paullyboy....when you've completed it I reckon it would be great if you could post it up here! I've only lived up here for 3 years and I'm still learning too!

 

[bender]

Goodluck on your assignment Paullyboy....when you've completed it I reckon it would be great if you could post it up here! I've only lived up here for 3 years and I'm still learning too!

Before the Broncos, the Brisbane competition was the premier competition in Qld. Although we did get the occassional Saturday Afternoon tv coverage of the Sydney comp, there was little relative interest when compared to the Brisbane competition. Their was a lot of interest in "combined Brisbane" taking on the the Sydney teams in the mid week cup and generally speaking this was Brisbane's team. THere was very hardly a roosters, eels, tigers, dragons brisbane based supporter (who did not live in Sydney at some stage) who existed because the comp just wasnt as popular as the brisbane competition.

Grand final day was the day of the Brisbane Grand final and this would easily outrate the sydney grand final, which was always shown but never had anywhere near the interest that the Brisbane Grand final. IN comparative terms, i would rate the interest in a sydney grand final as about the equivalent of the current aussie rules grand final in brisbane (without a brisbane Lions appearance).

In about 83 and 84 it would be fair to say that Wynnum and Souths were more than capable of beating Parramatta and Canterbury on their day. However, I believe the fifth place Sydney team was probably quite comfortably better than the fifth place brisbane team. And i doubt that Brisbane Wests would have won a game a game in the NSWRL (even against Sydney Wests).

When the Broncos came in, it wasnt just the broncos players signed, but from memory another 30 or so first grade players who were also poached from the Brisbane comp, and with the standard dropping, and media coverage non existant, the public simply stopped turning their attention to the competition.

In their first or second year, it is worth noting that combined brisbane did compete in the midweek comp and still beat a couple of NRL sides. For the first 5 or so years at least, there were players who were very close to State of origin standard whilst playing in the BRL competition. Some that i can think of were Brett Daunt, Kevin Langer, Craig Bowen, Shawn Rubesaame, Peter Coyne, Adrian Lam, Darren SMith. Sadly none of these players have ever actually been selected in the Qld side.

Since Superleague, the Qld cup only seems to have players who are either too young or not good enough for NRL and it is now a breeding ground only. The absurd amounts of money available in the NRL mean that it is not an option/advantage to keep a normal job in Brisbane so therefore all of the best players will now play in the NRL. Having said that, i am confident that a combined QRL side would go surprisingly well in the NRL and would certainly blow Souths out of the water.

 

[Up the mighty Phins]

The cashed-up Sydney clubs have always poached players from Brisbane and Qld Country through out history but the deluge of players lost from the BRL in the mid to late 80's set the foundations for talk of a Brisbane side in the Sydney comp.

Of course that happened and, naturally, the BRL has pretty much played second fiddle to the Broncos and the NSWRL.

One wonders though how different things would be been had Qld clubs had pokies much earlier than they did?

 

[mud n blood]

I believe than in simple terms, the Sydney competition - read : NRL - has finally succeeded in doing what it has always wanted to do. That is, destroy its biggest rival - read: Brisbane Rugby League. For that matter, it has managed to kill off many other great comps like the Illawarra and Newcastle Leagues.

Points to note .......

1. The NRL competition(?) is nothing but a glorified and US-style jazzed up Sydney Competition. They then place a few individual teams in strong RL centres to pull bucks from those areas into Sydney, and call themselves a national comp !!! Yeah, right ....

2. The NRL itself is still (unfortunately!) nothing more than the NSWRL in a 'softened-up' image. Noone can tell me how they are different. The ARL was exactly the same as well. The perfect example of this is how player records only count if you played in the Sydney comp. This said, someone like Wally Lewis played for Australia some 7 years prior to his "A Grade" debut ..... what a joke !

3. Sydney was always jealous (and still is!) that the Brisbane comp produced so many talented players, free of cost - as compared to the exorbitant bucks in their own comp. They then train these players for a month, play one game, and lay claim that everything these players know and do happened while in Sydney.

4. The NRL competition and followers of Sydney clubs all conveniently blame super league and the Broncos for every problem in the game. They are unwilling to accept that Sydney clubs themselves were the instigators of obscene dollars in the game years before SL appeared.

Sydney-siders prove it time and time again that these points are true by their tunnel-visioned Sydney-centric outlook on players, competition, standards, selections etc etc etc ...... ie - nothing has really changed in 30 years !

Thats my rant for the day ....

 

[Paullyboy]

This is absolute gold fella's, it really is, i thank you for your input. If anyone else has input please dont hesitate to add it. Im going to make a point of highlighting the opinions of current Qld cup supporters so keep em flowing.

A question for any of you guys willing to answer:



Do you (in your opinion), believe that if the Broncos were not introduced to the 'national comp' that the queensland cup was on track to match the sydney comp in terms of crowds and support?

thanks again guys, i really appreciate your opinions

 

[fat jabber]

Here's a bone for you to chew on...


Up until the time the Geldings entered the southern comp, a Brisbane punter could roll up to any of the 4 or 5 games being held in Brisbane each weekend and along with thousands of others (at each ground), watch genuine state and test reps play.
In almost any given year (pre or post 1980), there was generally at least 3 genuine contenders for each position in the Qld team and often more.
The Courier Mail (and the Telegraph)would generally devote the best part of half a page to each BRL game, there would generally be TV footage of each game on the news and merchandise was everywhere.
Each club's players generally lived within their club's districts and when finals time rolled round their colours decked out the local streets.


Rugby League had a MUCH higher profile in those days than it has now.

If anyone can give details of how the Broncs have improved Rugby League in Brisbane I would love to hear it.

 

[mud n blood]

In saying this - no, we would not have equalled or bettered the support of the Sydney comp and clubs. The BRL was dying a slow death, crowds were dropping, coverage was also dropping. The flow of playing talent was much more than a trickle, it was now a flood and increasing each year.

Our clubs simply didnt have the bucks to match Sydney, to keep them here. Even if the pokies had come in the early 80's or late-70's, the nature of time for that pokie revenue to filter out to football clubs and player payments would not be instantaneous.

Big problems ....

Another big point to not forget in all this Sydney-bashing is the open-mindedness of Queenslanders as compared to the blinkered view of Sydneysiders with respect to sport support.

In Brisbane, we have much more support for 2nd and 3rd tier sports than Sydney ever will. With this in mind, competition for prestige, media coverage, sponsorship, opportunities, junior development etc was extremely high. Possibly a big part of this is by nature of our outdoors-y climate. It's even worse now with the infiltration of rubbish American sports like basketball and all these "extreme sports". (What a joke they are!)

Another moot point of interest is the effect simply calling the Sydney comp the "Australian" - then "National" rugby league had on all other League comps. This immediately relegates all other leagues to something more resembling feeder leagues than RL stronghold comps in their own right. And for the purposes of marketing such a comp - all player records "must" religiously include their NSWRL records.

Interseting point that, considering we beat them in a number of interstate series, a midweek cup, and knocked off numerous international sides down the years !!! Bush footy ..... :roll:

 

[The Observer]

In 1996 and 1997, the Brisbane RL premiership finals were played directly following the Qld Cup grand final, but the prestige was dimmed somewhat because of having just played a Qld Cup grand final. So in 1998, the Qld Cup was adopted as the premier competition in the state.

It has been called the Channel 9 Qld Cup, Bundy Gold Cup, and Queensland Cup - so far !

There is some discontent from a number of Brisbane-based clubs as to the running, the success (?), the necessity, and the cost of the statewide concept.

Did the QLD Cup begin in 1996-1997? At that time did it run alongside/in competition to the Brisbane RL premiership? Was there any consternation from the Brissie clubs when it started?

BTW - liked your history about the Sydney/NRL comp in Points to note.

 

[mud n blood]

Yep - in both 1996 and 1997, the Qld Cup was played as it is now, but while the QC finalists were playing semis, the SE Division clubs not involved were playing elimination matches, with any other SE division clubs eliminated from the QC finals, joining the series.

Thus the end result was the QC grand final played one weekend, then the BRL (!) grand final a week or two later.

The system didn't work as it felt like two grand finals with the second one losing its gloss. It was right not to keep that system, but the statewide concept as it stood (and stands) didn't/doesn't work.

In saying this, I bet the 1997 Redcliffe fans quite enjoyed beating Easts in two grand finals within a fortnight ..... :lol:

 

[chileman]

In Brisbane, we have much more support for 2nd and 3rd tier sports than Sydney ever will.

That is very true. When I first arrived here in 2000 I went out to see all types of sporting events with my b-in-law like soccer (XXXX League) , Union (Premier Grade) and of course League which most people in Sydney unless they are linked to the club wouldn't bother going to see!

 

[zulu]

The amount of league you currently see in the Monday version of the courier mail 5 or 6 pages? Was a similar amounted devoted to the BRL comp in the pre-Broncos days. Who can forget those wonderful pink liftouts? The write ups of each game were very insightful and coupled with huge photos.

We also had the Daily Sun (myfavourite as a kid) because it had a full double page colour liftout of the weekend games as well huge write ups of the games. I used many of these liftouts to put together scrapbooks that I still have today.

And of course there was the very informative afternoon telegraph.

There was no shortage of local lague news back in those days - it was the main deal by a long way. In those papers the Sydney comp was usually reduced to one story and picture.

The local league now gets the same coverage as local AFL and local union which I find a great shame considering how far ahead of those comps the league was and still is.

zu

 

[XXXX Cap]

A lot of passionate views already, but I'll have my go - focusing on what was happening around the time the Broncos started.

I guess a lot of what happened was the result of various "trends" over the years :

- If you get hold of a newspaper from the 50's or 60's, you'll see that the sports coverage centred largely on a few sports - Rugby League, cricket, tennis, boxing and horse racing chiefly. The other codes and sports got comparatively little coverage.

- In the 70's, the Brisbane Rugby League Grand Final was by far the biggest sporting event of the year in Queensland. It was important - Lang Park was packed, the TV news carried it as the main item, everybody talked about it. Remember, this was before Indy, State of Origin, the Lions, Super 12, one-dayers internationals at the Gabba - all the current glamour events.

- The start of State of Origin in 1980 tended to shift the focus on Brisbane Rugby League away from the Club Competition and towards the Maroon's battles with the Blues. Seasons were remembered more for how Queensland went than who won the Premiership.

- Grand Final and other BRL crowds were not as strong as for the previous two decades. Probably only the rise of Wynnum-Manly with its big supporter base disguised this to some degree.

- Society was also changing - fathers now spent their time going to and from their childrens' activities. In earlier generations, the father worked all week and simply took off to the sporting event / golf / pub of his choice on the weekends. With wives now also working, that option didn't go over so well any more. As a result, attendances at week-to-week sporting events dropped e.g. race meetings, Sheffield Shield, club football. People still went to the big events - Stradbroke day, Test matches, State of Origin - but weren't going as often.

- The Brisbane team's win in the 1984 Midweek competition added to the interest in how a local team would go in the Sydney competition. Added to that was the view that Wynnum's '84 team would have been very competitive with the Sydney premiers.

- Once the idea was floated, the local media got behind it, probably because they could see benefits for themselves. Instead of covering an unglamorous Redcliffe v Norths game on a Sunday, they might be doing the Brisbane v Parramatta game. They would be on the "big" stage.

- In the end, a Brisbane team in the Sydney or hopefully "National" competition was inevitable. Soccer and Basketball had long established national comps and Aussie Rules went that way in 1987. Rugby League would have been viewed as antiquated if it didn't do likewise.

- The trouble was, once the Broncos started in 1988, the BRL competition was completely forgotten about by the media and most fans, unlike Adelaide when their local competition remained important after the Crows entered the AFL. Press coverage was immediately limited to a few paragraphs. I remember Channel 9 showing a replay of a game for a couple of years but TV coverage was fairly non-existant until the ABC thankfully got involved with the Queensland Cup.

- For the fans, many went to the Broncos for two main reasons. For some, the star players of their old BRL club were going there so they went too. The other reason was that it was the trendy thing to do. The Broncos were new and different, had that new beer Powers as a sponsor and everyone was talking about them. Bit like the way Rugby Union is trendy at the moment. Brisbane was a bit more "sophistocated" and the wanna-bees were looking for something more "important" than the old tribal local teams.

- It was really left to the diehard fans to stick with their BRL clubs. I felt it meandered along with no real purpose or great future until the Queensland Cup started. Others may disagree, but the Cup has done a huge amount to lift the profile of the "second-tier" competition. The ABC coverage is watched by plenty bringing it into people's heads, if not getting them immediately through the gate. I know this year with the Gulls having a good year, plenty of people who hadn't been to a game in years came along and really enjoyed what they saw.

- The inclusion of successful and well run clubs like Burleigh and Tweed Heads can only be a big plus for the competition. Nobody (except Mud maybe) is keener on history and tradition than me but we also have to be realistic - the Queensland wide comp and ABC TV promotes the game throughout the State and the more competitive teams the better. The other week I heard a detailed season's wrap up of the Queensland Cup on the Bundaberg radio station - and they don't even have a team in it ! It must reamin a State wide competition.


Feel like I've written an assignment myself ! This has been a great topic to get everyone's angle on it.

 

[Paullyboy]

XXXX cap. That is absolutely gold, thank you in particular as that pretty much gave me exactly the sort of information i was looking for, thank you!

And thanks to everyone else as Ive duely noted your input as well and have taken bits and pieces that fit in with the flow of what Im writing.

Still if there are any other bits of information keep them flowing because its is a great read.

 

[mud n blood]

Perhaps you should post your final piece on here for us to check and comment on its validity, quality etc, before you hand it in. That may even allow a post-script note to it if we here differ in our views on what its general feel is.

I for one would certainly be interested in seeing it. (May even give you a mark out of ten ....)

 

[Paullyboy]

Thats a mighty good idea, I will put up on Sunday night hopefully (ive got a lot of work to do between now and then).

 

[XXXX Cap]

Do you mind telling us what subject and course this comes under ?