Rugby league in Queensland
| Rugby league in Queensland | |
|---|---|
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| Governing body | Queensland Rugby League |
| Representative team | Queensland |
| Nickname(s) | football, footy |
| First played | 8 May 1909 in Brisbane |
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Club competitions
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Rugby league is the most popular winter sport in the Australian state of Queensland.
The earliest record of rugby football being played in Queensland is in 1876, when the Brisbane Football Club, formed in 1866 to play 'Melbourne Rules', commenced playing according to the recently codified Rugby (Union) rules, to fit in with two newly formed football clubs (Rangers and Bonnet Rouge), before reverting to Australian Rules (with occasional Rugby matches) in 1879. The Queensland Rugby Union was subsequently constituted as the Northern Rugby Union in 1883, and a year later the first organised club competition took place in Brisbane.
On 16 May 1908 the first game of rugby league was played in the state when the touring New Zealand team played Queensland at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground.
The advent of professional rugby league in New South Wales saw many Queensland rugby players leaving for Sydney to play league. In 1908, the Queensland Rugby Union banned its players from going to Sydney to play league, which resulted in disgruntled players forming the Queensland Amateur Rugby Football League (QARFL) (later renamed Queensland Rugby League). The new organisation was attacked by the local press and the QRU for introducing professionalism, which they claimed would destroy the sport. The first official club competition kicked off in Brisbane on May 8, 1909.
The league put down strong roots in the bush and in working class communities and these areas are still the heartland of the modern game of rugby league. Between 1914 and 1918 some major rugby union clubs switched to rugby league.
In 1922 the Brisbane Rugby Football League (BRFL, later BRL) was formed out of dissatisfaction with the way the QRL ran the game. Those involved took particular exception to the salary being earned by Harry Sunderland as secretary of the QRL.
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