The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos currently compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club has won six premierships, including two New South Wales Rugby League premierships, a Super League premiership and three NRL premierships. The Broncos have won two World Club Challenges, and four minor premierships in multiple competitions. Prior to 2015, Brisbane had never been defeated in a grand final, and since 1991, the club has failed to qualify for the finals five times. The club is one of the most successful clubs in the National Rugby League since it began in 1998, winning three premierships. The club is one of the most successful clubs in the history of rugby league, having won 59.9% of games played since its induction in 1988, second only to Melbourne Storm with 67.3%.
Darren James Lockyer is an Australian television commentator and former professional rugby league footballer. Lockyer was an Australian international and Queensland State representative captain, who played his entire professional career with the Brisbane Broncos.
The 2004 NRL season was the 97th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the seventh run by the National Rugby League. Fifteen clubs competed during the regular season before the top eight finishing teams contested the finals series. The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs defeated the Sydney Roosters in the 2004 NRL grand final and in doing so claimed their eighth premiership.
The St. George Illawarra Dragons are an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since 1999 after a joint-venture was formed between the St. George Dragons and the Illawarra Steelers. The club officially formed as the game's first joint-venture club on 23 September 1998 and remains the only inter-city team in the NRL. The team has its headquarters and leagues clubs in both Wollongong and the Sydney suburb of Kogarah, and trains and plays games regularly at WIN Stadium in Wollongong, as well as at Jubilee Oval in Kogarah. From 1999 to 2006 the club was jointly owned by the St. George Dragons 50% and Illawarra Steelers 50%. In 2006 WIN Corporation purchased 50% of the Illawarra Steelers stake in the club before purchasing the rest of the Illawarra Steelers' share in August 2018.
The 2006 Brisbane Broncos season was the nineteenth in the club's history. Coached by Wayne Bennett and captained by Darren Lockyer, they won the NRL's 2006 Telstra Premiership, finishing the regular season in 3rd place before going on to defeat the first-placed Melbourne Storm in the 2006 NRL Grand Final.
The 2004 Brisbane Broncos season was the seventeenth in the club's history. They competed in the NRL's 2004 Telstra Premiership, making it to the finals again, but were knocked out of contention by the North Queensland Cowboys, their first ever loss to the club.
The 1997 Australian Rugby League season was the 90th season of professional rugby league football in Australia, and the third season run by the Australian Rugby League. While several clubs had left the League to compete in the 1997 Super League season, twelve ARL-loyal teams – eight from across Sydney, two from greater New South Wales and two from Queensland – competed for the Optus Cup Trophy. The top seven teams then played a series of knock-out finals which culminated in a September grand final played in Sydney between the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the Newcastle Knights. The fairytale came true for thousands of Novocastrians when the Newcastle club won their first ever premiership, staging a comeback from 8–16 to shatter Manly's hopes.
The 1997 Super League season was a breakaway professional rugby league football competition in Australia and the only one to be run by the News Limited-controlled Super League organisation. Eight teams which had broken away from the existing Australian Rugby League, in addition to the newly created Adelaide Rams and Hunter Mariners, competed over eighteen weekly rounds of the regular season. The top five teams then played a series of knock-out finals which culminated in a September grand final played in Brisbane between the Brisbane Broncos and Cronulla.
The 1998 Brisbane Broncos season was the eleventh in the history of Brisbane's National Rugby League premiership team, the Brisbane Broncos. Coached by Wayne Bennett and captained by Allan Langer, they participated in the newly formed National Rugby League's 1998 premiership and posted their three biggest ever wins in rounds 5, 7 and 15 before finishing the regular season as minor premiers. The Broncos then won the 1998 NRL Grand Final, capturing their fourth premiership in seven seasons.
The 2000 Brisbane Broncos season was the thirteenth in the club's history. Coached by Wayne Bennett and captained by Kevin Walters, they competed in the NRL's 2000 Telstra Premiership, finishing the regular season 1st to claim their 4th minor premiership before going on to win the 2000 NRL Grand final, their fifth title in nine years.
Michael De Vere is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He represented Australia in four tests and New South Wales in five State of Origin matches. A goal-kicking outside back who could play centre, wing or fullback and also a skilful goal-kicker who ended his career having kicked at 76.62%, De Vere played club football for the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL, with whom he won the 1997, 1998 and 2000 premierships. He later played with English club the Huddersfield Giants in the Super League, reaching the 2006 Challenge Cup final. In 2009, he instigated a comeback with the Brisbane Broncos, which only lasted one game before he retired.
The history of the Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club stretches back from their inception in the mid-1980s to the present day. They were introduced to the NSWRL's Winfield Cup premiership in 1988, taking the competition by storm in winning their first six games. The Broncos participated in 18 consecutive finals series from 1992–2009, winning premierships six times, including the 1992 and 1993 NSWRL premierships, the Superleague premiership in 1997 and then the 1998, 2000 and 2006 National Rugby League premierships.
The 2008 National Rugby League season consisted of 26 weekly regular season rounds, starting on 14 March, followed by four weeks of play-offs, culminating in a Grand Final on 5 October.
The 2010 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2010 NRL season. Played on Sunday, 3 October at Sydney's ANZ Stadium, the match was contested by the St. George Illawarra Dragons and the Sydney Roosters. It was the first time the two sides met in a grand final. They had played each other twice before during the season, with St. George Illawarra winning on both occasions. St. George Illawarra finished the season as minor premiers as they had the previous season. The Roosters were the previous year's wooden-spooners and only after playing and winning for five consecutive weeks were able to reach the 2010 decider.
The 2006 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding match of the NRL's 2006 Telstra Premiership season. It was played between the first-placed Melbourne Storm and the third-placed Brisbane Broncos clubs on the night of Sunday, 1 October. The 2006 grand final was the first ever to feature teams which were both from cities outside the borders of New South Wales, in this case the capitals of Queensland and Victoria, yet was played at the traditional venue of Sydney's Telstra Stadium. It was the first time the two sides had met in a grand final. They had played each other twice during the 2006 regular season, with Melbourne winning both times. The Melbourne side went into the grand final as heavy favorites, having won the minor premiership. Both teams were looking to keep their perfect grand final records intact: Brisbane with 5/5 and the Melbourne side with 1/1 heading into the game.
The 2010 NRL season consisted of 26 weekly regular season rounds, starting on 12 March and ending on 5 September, followed by four weeks of play-offs culminating in the grand final on 3 October.
The 2002 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2002 NRL season. It took place on Sunday, 6 October 2002, at Sydney's Telstra Stadium. 80,130 people saw the Sydney Roosters beat the New Zealand Warriors 30–8. The Clive Churchill Medalist was Craig Fitzgibbon of the Sydney Roosters. The match was also broadcast live in the United States by Fox Sports World.
The 1998 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 1998 NRL season. It was the first grand final of the re-unified National Rugby League and featured minor premiers and the previous year's Super League premiers, the Brisbane Broncos against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, who had finished the regular season ninth to make a top-ten play-off grouping. It was to be the first grand final under the National Rugby League partnership's administration and the last to be played at the Sydney Football Stadium. It was also the first time these two sides had met in a grand final.
The 2011 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the NRL's 2011 Telstra Premiership season. It was played between the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and the New Zealand Warriors on the afternoon of Sunday, 2 October, and it was the first time the two sides have met in a grand final. Manly won the match, 24–10, for the club's eighth premiership.
The 2015 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 2015 NRL season and was played on Sunday 4 October at Sydney's ANZ Stadium between the Brisbane Broncos and North Queensland Cowboys. North Queensland won the match 17–16 in golden point extra time, claiming their first premiership title in their twentieth year of competition. Due to its dramatic ending, the match has been regarded as one of the greatest grand finals in rugby league history, drawing comparisons with the 1989 NSWRL Grand Final and the 1997 ARL Grand Final. Cowboys co-captain Johnathan Thurston, who kicked the winning field goal for his team, was awarded the Clive Churchill Medal as the best player on the ground. Pre-match entertainment was headlined by Australian rock band Cold Chisel.
