Brisbane Rugby League

Prior to 1922, the competition was conducted under the auspices of the Queensland Rugby League. Until the 1980s it was the premier sporting competition in Brisbane, attracting large crowds and broad media coverage. The Brisbane Rugby League however, had been in slow decline for some 15 years as large numbers of its players left to compete in the more lucrative Sydney Rugby League, and began to lose popular interest with the creation of the Brisbane Broncos in 1988. Also in 1988, the Sydney Rugby Leaguede facto superseded the Brisbane Rugby League by going national and including the Brisbane and Gold Coast clubs. However, the BRL maintained legal top-flight status until the advent of the national Australian Rugby League premiership in 1995, which superseded both Brisbane Rugby League premiership and the Sydney Rugby League premiership. The Brisbane Rugby League premiership then became a second-tier competition until it ceased and was fully replaced at this level by the Queensland Cup before the 1998 season. The FOGS Cup, a third-tier competition under the NRL and Queensland Cup, changed its name to the Brisbane Rugby League in 2016.