Rugby league in Queensland

The earliest record of rugby football being played in Queensland is in 1876, when the Brisbane Football Club, formed in 1866 to play 'Melbourne Rules', commenced playing according to the recently codified Rugby (Union) rules, to fit in with two newly formed football clubs (Rangers and Bonnet Rouge), before reverting to Australian Rules (with occasional Rugby matches) in 1879. The Queensland Rugby Union was subsequently constituted as the Northern Rugby Union in 1883, and a year later the first organised club competition took place in Brisbane.

On 16 May 1908 the first game of rugby league was played in the state when the touring New Zealand team played Queensland at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground.

The advent of professional rugby league in New South Wales saw many Queensland rugby players leaving for Sydney to play rugby league. In 1908, the Queensland Rugby Union banned its players from going to Sydney to play rugby league, which resulted in disgruntled players forming the Queensland Amateur Rugby Football League (QARFL) (later renamed Queensland Rugby League). The new organisation was attacked by the local press and the QRU for introducing professionalism, which they claimed would destroy the sport. The first official club competition kicked off in Brisbane on May 8, 1909.

The league put down strong roots in the bush and in working class communities and these areas are still the heartland of the modern game of rugby league. Between 1914 and 1918 some major rugby union clubs switched to rugby league.

In 1922 the Brisbane Rugby Football League (BRFL, later BRL) was formed out of dissatisfaction with the way the QRL ran the game. Those involved took particular exception to the salary being earned by Harry Sunderland as secretary of the QRL.

By the mid-1970s, crowds began to desert the BRL competition. Clubs found themselves in financial hardship, and the public began to support the Sydney competition which by then was being broadcast in Queensland. A statewide competition - the Winfield State League would run in parallel to the BRL competition from 1982 to 1995.

Newly formed Brisbane Broncos and the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants joined the New South Wales Rugby League premiership in 1988. In 1992 it was decided that South Queensland Crushers and North Queensland Cowboys would be admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League competition as part of the League's expansion plans for professional rugby league in Australia.

Gold Coast Titans joined the National Rugby League in 2007 to bring the total of Queensland-based teams up to three.

The Queensland Rugby League (QRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and selects the members of Queensland State of Origin teams.

The National Rugby League (NRL) is Australia's top level competition for the sport of rugby league.

There are three Queensland based teams in the NRL: Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Titans, and North Queensland Cowboys.

The Gold Coast Chargers did compete in the 1998 NRL Season and the South Queensland Crushers had competed in the ARL from 1995 to 1997.

Current

Club	Location	Home Ground(s)	First season
Brisbane Broncos	Brisbane, Queensland	Suncorp Stadium 52,500 (12 home games)	1988
Gold Coast Titans	Gold Coast, Queensland	Skilled Park 27,500 (12 home games)	2007
North Queensland Cowboys	Townsville, Queensland	North Queensland Stadium 25,000 (12 home games)	1995

Former

Club	Location	Home Ground(s)	Seasons
Gold Coast Chargers	Gold Coast, Queensland	Carrara Stadium 22,000 (12 home games)	1988 - 1998
South Queensland Crushers	Brisbane, Queensland	Lang Park 22,000 (11 home games)	1995 - 1997

• The Brisbane Rugby League (BRL) premiership was the premier competition in Queensland from 1909 until 1997. It was superseded by the Queensland Cup.
• The Bulimba Cup was a representative competition contested between Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba. It was contested between 1925 and 1972.
• The Winfield State League was a Queensland-wide competition that was held in a variety of formats between 1982 and 1995. This competition was superseded by the Queensland Cup.

The Queensland State of Origin side is by far Queensland's most loved football team. Purely a representative team, they play three games a year against New South Wales in the competition known as the State of Origin, thus named because players represent their state of birth or the state where they played their first senior game of football. They are currently captained by Daly Cherry-Evans and coached by Kevin Walters.

The Queensland and New South Wales teams are heavily competitive. During the 1980s Queensland had the upper hand (8 out of 10 to Qld); during the 1990s, factoring in Super League which took out most of the Queensland team (through the Brisbane Broncos), the results were reasonably similar (6 out of 10 to NSW); and during the first decade of the 2000s, New South Wales has had the upper hand, but are by no means dominant (4 out of 7 to NSW, with the most recent to Qld).

• Rugby league in Australia
• Sport in Queensland

• Queensland Rugby League
• League's Queensland page
• Queensland Rugby League History
• Rugby League clubs in Queensland
• Queensland Masters Rugby League Association inc