| Rugby league in Queensland | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Governing body | Queensland Rugby League |
| Representative team | Queensland |
| Nickname(s) | football, footy |
| First played | 1908 in Brisbane |
| Registered players | 67,911[1] 70,000+ (including variants)[2] |
Club competitions | |
Audience records | |
| Single match | 58,912 1997 Super League Grand Final (ANZ Stadium, Brisbane) |
In Queensland, Rugby league was introduced in 1908 and is the most watched winter sport in the state and the second most participated football code after soccer. Within its first decade it surpassed rugby union there to become the most popular football code as players switched to play professionally in the Queensland Rugby League (QRL).[3] In the 1920s, Queenslanders began leaving to play professionally in the New South Wales Rugby League which became a more popular competition. However Queensland maintained a strong rugby league culture, with the state continuing to perform well in interstate rugby league. The later advent of the State of Origin series ensured that players would return to represent their state. Regarded as “Australian sport's greatest rivalry”, the term "Origin fever" is used by the media to describe the passion of the Queenslanders public for the competition and the chant "Queenslander!", attributed to Billy Moore in 1995, has become the state's battle cry. The Queensland Rugby League is the governing body and has 58,912 registered tackle players. Rugby league authorities often count an additional 70,000 registered touch football players as participants, though that sport is only loosely affiliated and is governed by Touch Football Queensland.
Queensland is home to four professional clubs, the Brisbane Broncos (1987), North Queensland Cowboys (1992), Gold Coast Titans (2007) and The Dolphins (2023) all participating in the National Rugby League (NRL). Lang Park, the spiritual home of the code in Queensland, is home to the two Brisbane based clubs. The Broncos, the oldest and most popular in the state, records the highest annual revenue of all NRL clubs.[4] Along with financial competitiveness, the Broncos have been voted one of Australia's most popular and most watched football teams,[5] and has one of the highest average attendances of any rugby league club in the world; 33,337 in the 2012 NRL season. Since 2019 Brisbane has also hosted Magic Round, a special NRL round in which all matches are played at Lang Park, the event is highly popular and averages near capacity for attendance at Lang Park.
Queensland origin legends include: Wally Lewis, Darren Lockyer, Mal Meninga, Allan Langer, Johnathan Thurston, Arthur Beetson, Shane Webcke, Gordon Tallis, Wendell Sailor, Greg Inglis, Bob Lindner, Trevor Gillmeister, Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk, Paul Vautin, Lote Tuquiri, and Petero Civoniceva.[6]
- ^ "Rugby League Report". SportAus.
- ^ https://touchfootball.com.au/media/13721/tfa_annual-report-2021-2022.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ Spracklen, Karl; Spracklen, Lee (2021). "'(Simply) the best', or remembering when tina turner met the winfield cup: Nostalgia and the construction of authenticity in rugby league online spaces". Sport in Society. 24: 74–87. doi:10.1080/17430437.2020.1789103. S2CID 225567283.
- ^ Lanigan, Louise (21 February 2013). "Brisbane Broncos Annual Financial Report for 2012" (PDF). Brisbane Broncos Limited. Brisbane: Ernest and Young. p. 61. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
- ^ Heming, Wayne (30 October 2009). "Brisbane Broncos voted Australia's most popular football team". foxsports.com.au. Australian Associated Press. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
- ^ Legends name greatest Queensland team of all time by Troy Whittaker for NRL.com 18 November 2020