The 1996 Queensland Cup season was the 1st season of Queensland's premier statewide competition. It had been formed after the

Winfield State League The Winfield State League was a rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It was administered by the Queensland Rugby League. The competition was the QRL's parallel to the NSWRL's Amco Cup knockout and ran alongside the Brisbane ...

was closed after the end of the 1995 Season. It was subsequently superseded by the Queensland Cup. At this time it was considered as the second highest league, directly under the Brisbane Rugby League. It would run under the

BRL The Brazilian real ( pl. '; sign: R$; code: BRL) is the official currency of Brazil. It is subdivided into 100 centavos. The Central Bank of Brazil is the central bank and the issuing authority. The real replaced the cruzeiro real in 1994. ...

until 1998 when it would become the highest rugby league competition in the state.

Teams

The inaugural Queensland Cup season featured 16 teams, 12 from south east Queensland, two from

north Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

and one each from central Queensland and Papua New Guinea.

Regular season

The inaugural Queensland Cup consisted of 16 teams and ran for 15 regular season rounds (which included two split rounds) with a top 6 finals system.''Queensland R.LEAGUE'
1996 Results
''Retrieved'' 17 Dec 2007

Ladder

¹Awarded one point due to game being cancelled.

Finals series

Grand Final

The inaugural Queensland Cup Grand Final featured minor premiers, the Toowoomba Clydesdales, and the second placed Redcliffe Dolphins, in what would be the fourth meeting between the two sides in 1996. The first encounter was in Round 13, with Redcliffe defeating Toowoomba 18-8 to secure the two competition points. The sides then met twice in the final series, with both matches being low-scoring, defensive battles. In the qualifying final, the Clydesdales recorded a narrow 12-10 win over the Dolphins, while two weeks later Redcliffe held on for a 6-0 victory to progress to the Grand Final.

First half

Toowoomba second-rower Scott Kuhnemann recorded the only points in the first half, kicking a penalty goal in the 21st minute. This came after Redcliffe captain

Ian Graham Ian James Alastair Graham OBE (12 November 1923 – 1 August 2017) was a British Mayanist whose explorations of Maya ruins in the jungles of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize helped establish the ''Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions'' publi ...

and Toowoomba's Paul Sutton were both sin binned for fighting.

Second half

The first try of the final was eventually scored by Clydesdales' interchange player Shaun Lawson, who dummied and stepped through the Dolphins' defence to score under the posts. Redcliffe then hit back through centre

Mark Shipway Mark Shipway (born 3 May 1976 in Australia) is a former professional rugby league footballer who played for the North Queensland Cowboys, the Northern Eagles and the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Rugby League (NRL). He also played ...

, who received the ball 35 metres out from the try line and sprinted around the Toowoomba defence to get his side back into the contest. Redcliffe were then denied twice in the dying minutes by the Clydesdales' defence. Halfback Peter Robinson was stopped just before the line by Toowoomba fullback Kyle Warren, who knocked himself unconscious in the process, while Cameron Hurren had the ball knocked out of his arms, just moments later, as he went over the try line. As of 2019, the 8–6 scoreline is still the lowest ever in a Queensland Cup Grand Final.

Player statistics

The following statistics are correct as of the conclusion of Round 15.

Leading try scorers

Leading point scorers

End-of-season awards

* Courier Mail Medal:

Alan Wieland Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' * A ...

( Wests Panthers) * Rookie of the Year: Brendan Liston (

Easts Tigers The Brisbane Tigers are a rugby league club based at Langlands Park, in the suburb of Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia. Since 1996, they have competed in the Queensland Cup, having competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1934 to 1997, where ...

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Queensland Cup season 1996 1996 in Australian rugby league Queensland Cup 1996 in Papua New Guinean sport