The Broncos began 1992 in good form. They qualified for the Tooheys Challenge final with victories over Canberra, Gold Coast and Wests. They met Illawarra in the final at Dubbo, and in a dour struggle, the Steelers came out triumphant 4-2.

The premiership began with a commanding 30-2 victory over Cronulla and a last gasp 24-18 victory over Gold Coast, both at Lang Park. Their 24-16 win over Canberra at Bruce Stadium was against a very depleted Raiders side, missing five internationals. The defending premiers, Penrith, who most regarded as the Broncos' only threat to the premiership, gave Brisbane a 24-10 touchup at Lang Park. Halfback Greg Alexander dominated Langer and threw his hat into the Test halfback ring with Langer and Stuart.

Unfortunately for Alexander and Penrith, a tragic car accident that saw Alexander's younger brother Ben fatally injured would curtail their season. Traumatised, Alexander could, understandably, not focus on football and Penrith's season disintegrated. Ben was a promising player in Penrith's Under-21 side and to see his life cut tragically short was a very sad moment.

The Broncos had wins away against Manly and Newcastle over the next two weeks, but six were on hand as New South Wales won the first State of Origin game 14-6. After a heavy night drinking after the game, the Broncos struggled against Illawarra and went down 10-8 at Lang Park.

Brisbane beat St George 20-18 at the Adelaide Oval, a loose freeflowing game which usually harmed the Broncos during the Origin campaigns. A week later, without six Origin players - Hancock, Johns, Kevin Walters, Langer, Lazarus and Allen - Willie Carne and Andrew Gee out injured and Alan Cann suspended, the Broncos managed to beat South Sydney 26-18 to really put forward their claims as premiership contenders.

Queensland won the famous second Origin game at Lang Park in arguably Langer's finest hour. With the scores locked at 4-all with just 3 minutes left, Queensland deep in attack on the last tackle, the ball went to Langer. He'd never kicked a field goal in his life, yet he lined up and took a shot at the posts and it sailed sweetly over the black dot. Queensland won 5-4 and the euphoria at Lang Park was simply overwhelming. Sadly Queensland capitulated in the decider 16-4 for the first of 3 consecutive series victories for New South Wales.

Australia won the first Test against Great Britain 22-6. After an uncertain start, Langer starred in that game. A week later Australia collapsed to a 33-10 loss to the Lions in Melbourne. Langer prepared himself to be sacked. It was Australia's biggest ever loss to Great Britain. Langer needn't have worried though. Peter Jackson was the only player dropped from that side and Australia triumphed 16-10 in the decider to retain the Ashes yet again. Meninga played his 37th test that day, beating Reg Gasnier's record which Wally Lewis had claimed was the reason he was not chosen for the 1990 Kangaroo Tour.

During all this representative drama, the Broncos lost just one match - to Canterbury 28-24 at Belmore Oval. They managed wins over North Sydney and Balmain before the Test stars returned. Langer sat out the 20-4 win over Parramatta before returning for the 46-22 thumping of early competition leaders Eastern Suburbs.

Langer's difficulty talking to referees became an issue in the 25-16 loss to Wests at Campbelltown. Graham Annesley sin binned Langer for dissent. That proved to be the last loss the Broncos endured in season 1992.

A win against Cronulla started the trend, and was followed by victories over Gold Coast, Canberra, Penrith, Manly, Newcastle and Illawarra to clinch the minor premiership by a mammoth 6 competition points from St George. Coach Bennett regards the 12-6 win over Penrith as the season's defining moment. It was a gritty win, a game which the Broncos of old may well have given up on when the going got tough.

Brisbane sat out the first week of the finals, able to sit back and watch Illawarra and St George cream eachother. Langer was awarded the Rothman's Medal in that week, the honour given to the best and fairest player in the NSWRL competition.

Newcastle knocked Wests out in the first week of the finals, while Illawarra booked themselves a meeting with the Broncos in the Major Semi-Final to decide the first team into the Grand Final. Illawarra scored first, but the Broncos kept their composure and scored tries through Langer and Kevin Walters to lead at half time and go on to win 22-12 to qualify for their first Grand Final.

St George eliminated Newcastle to meet Illawarra in the Preliminary Final. The Dragons won 3-2 in a dour, some would say boring contest, which sent the Dragons players into fits of onfield emotion as they qualified for their first Grand Final since 1985. The outward display of emotion was noted by the Broncos, and it was obvious they'd be more down to earth when the teams collided a week later.

Grand Final week was, quite understandably, a mass of publicity and hype. The Ipswich Connection released a song titled Hey Hey, We're The Broncos, a rip off of the Monkee's song of a similar name. Allan Langer, Kerrod and Kevin Walters put the song together as a gimmick and in Grand Final week, it was number one in Queensland and number 28 nationally!

Thousands of fans cramming the training ground, crops having the words "Broncos to Win" carved into them, kilometres of messages along the beaches on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. You could excuse the players for being distracted, yet to their credit they stayed completely focussed.

But like the Major Semi, the Broncos began slowly. The Dragons had the better of play early but the Brisbane defence was solid. 10 minutes into the game, Langer made his move. Right in front of the posts he ran to the line, offloaded to Gavin Allen who then passed the ball which bounced off the head of a St George defender into the arms of Langer who scored under the posts. Terry Matterson converted for a 6-0 lead.

St George hit back. Scott Gourley ran at Langer on halfway and got through, offloading to set up winger Ricky Walford with a great try out wide. They missed the conversion and at half time Brisbane led uncertainly 6-4.

10 minutes into the second half, the Broncos were gaining the ascendency. Johns and Carne crunched St George fullback Mick Potter into touch and on the third tackle, Langer darted out of dummy half, ran behind referee Greg McCallum and forced his way over in the tackle of prop Tony Priddle. 12-4 in front, the Grand Final was almost won.

Four minutes later, the Grand Final was certainly over and provided one of the great images of Grand Final play. Chunky secondrower Alan Cann ran on the last, stepping and weaving past several St George defenders, plunging over the line, standing and bouncing the ball on the ground as Kevin Walters embraced him in the most triumphant manner. The Broncos were up 18-4 and spent the final 25 minutes of the game enjoying themselves.

The most memorable try came soon after, to the Prince of Centres - Steve Renouf. 5metres out from their own line after Willie Carne pulled off a remarkable effort to get back into the field of play, the Broncos spread the ball wide and Renouf stepped inside the defence. He stretched out and reached top speed and ran 95-metres to score with Walford chasing in vain. Cann's second try had them up 28-4 before a last minute try gave St George some respect at 28-8. The first premiership belonged to the Broncos.

Allan Langer won the Clive Churchill Medal for best on ground for his two-try heroics and prop Glenn Lazarus continued a tradition he had started at Canberra by lifting the Winfield Cup one handed. The Broncos - champions of 1992.

The Broncos returned to Brisbane to a hero's reception. Thousands at the airport and even more back at Red Hill celebrated with the players long into the night. The players shaved their heads with their numbers shaved into the backs of their heads which became a tradition as the Broncos won more premierships in the 1990s.

After a week of partying, 8 Broncos were named in the Australian side to contest the 1992 World Cup Final against Great Britain. Kevin Walters sent Steve Renouf over for the match winning try in Australia's 10-6 win, and a week later the Broncos creamed Wigan 22-8 in the World Club Challenge to officially earn the title of the best club side in the world.

After 5 years of hard, at times thankless work, the Morgan-Maranta-Bennett-Ribot management team had accomplished what they had set out to achieve - a rugby league team from Brisbane that could take it up to Sydney and win. And win well. A team the whole of Queensland could be proud of.