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The Birth of the Broncos

In 1908, the first NSWRL premiership was contested in Sydney. It launched the breakaway game of Rugby League which, despite being written off as being over before it began, went on to become Australia's most revered and for a time, most popular winter sport.

Queensland has always gone toe to toe with New South Wales, and they launched their first competition in Brisbane in 1909. But for 70 years, Queensland was treated like a second class citizen, and the only attention New South Wales gave was to poach their players and worse, make them play for New South Wales. It was a hiding to nothing for Queensland. Year in, year out they were on the end of the most humiliating thrashings in Australian sport.

But State of Origin changed all that. In 1980, the new format came in where players played for the state they originated from and not their state of residence. Suddenly Queensland became the dominant state, winning a massive majority of the State of Origin contests of the 1980s.

In 1986, the ARL made a decision that they needed to pursue expansion of the NSWRL premiership. They looked to Queensland to provide at least one team, plus a traditional league stronghold - and an original combatant in 1908-09 - Newcastle.

The word went out that the NSWRL wanted submissions for a Brisbane-based team by the end of February 1987 and a final decision would be made at the end of April. It was precious little time, but four consortiums put their ideas forward.

The group that failed in 1986 to gain entry, led by then Redcliffe coach and future chief executive of the now defunct South Queensland Crushers, Darryl Van De Velde entered the race again. Alister Norwood, the man in charge of Jeans West joined with Melbourne marketing strategist Jim McKay to form the second consortium to show interest. The third was led by Brisbane businessman Barry Maranta and backed by Brisbane stockbroker Paul "Porky" Morgan, while the final entrant was a Gold Coast-based group led by ex-league stars John Sattler and Bob Hagan.

As it happened, the Norwood-McKay and Maranta-Morgan groups were the frontrunners. But it would all come to nothing if the QRL vetoed the plan entry into the NSWRL. The biggest stumbling block was the BRL (Brisbane Rugby League) who had a vested interest in protecting the local competition and its clubs. They argued, quite rightly, that a team in the bigger, more popular Sydney competition would skim the sponsorship, player and attendance resources that were already scarce.

The QRL board meeting was farcical. The three BRL members voted against it, joined by two country league members, while the remaining three country members and chief executive Ross Livermore voted in favour. That left the vote 5-4 against. QRL Chairman Bill Hunter, a strong supporter of entering a Sydney team, decided to abstein from voting so as to not upset the Brisbane clubs. The vote remained 5-4 against and Hunter declared the move dead and buried.

The consortiums had other ideas. The Norwood-McKay consortium approached the NSWRL with a revised deal that made the QRL a one-third partner or accept a $2 million one off payment. The Maranta-Morgan group couldn't match that outlay, but instead Maranta approached the executives of the Brisbane clubs.

Assured that four individuals couldn't run the new club, the Brisbane clubs were told that strong club support and a strong Brisbane competition were vital to the success of the new club. Maranta offered the clubs a 30% share of the new franchise's profits, no liability for losses and no direct investment from them. Plus they were offered a dollar-for-dollar sponsorship up to $10000 per year. That discounts a lot of calls from Bronco-haters that the club does nothing and has done nothing for the local competition.

Another QRL vote was taken and this time it was unanimous in favour of sending a team to Sydney. Another vote was taken over which consortium to enter, and the Maranta-Morgan group won hands down 7-3, with the only objection coming from three country delegates who wanted the QRL to enter a team themselves.

The entry was made, now it was time to set up a football club.

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