1987 Brisbane Rugby League
Duration	March 1 – September 20, 1987
Teams	9
Premiers	Past Brothers
Minor premiers	Past Brothers
Matches played	76
Points scored	2898
Player of the year	Gene Miles

The 1987 Brisbane Rugby League premiership was the 77th season of Brisbane's professional rugby league football competition. Nine teams from across Brisbane competed for the premiership, which culminated in a grand final match between the Redcliffe and Past Brothers clubs.

Season summary

The format of the Winfield Cup was changed once again for the 1987 season, with games between Brisbane sides in the Winfield State League no longer granting competition points for the regular season. Instead, rounds 2 to 5 of the Woolies Pre-Season Competition were once again treated as first-grade games (Round 1, in which only 2 games were played, did not give competition points).

Teams played each other twice, with 18 rounds of competition played. It resulted in a top four of Past Brothers, Northern Suburbs, Redcliffe and Wynnum-Manly. The 1987 season is significant as most Rugby League historians view it as the final season of the BRL as a true top tier competition, as the entry of the Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Giants into the NSWRL Premiership in 1988 devastated the BRL by stripping it of mainstream media coverage and players.^[1]

Teams

Club	Home ground	Coach	Captain
Eastern Suburbs	Langlands Park	Shane McNally	Ian Stains
Ipswich	North Ipswich Reserve	Tommy Raudonikis	Glen Haggarth
Northern Suburbs	Bishop Park	Greg Oliphant	Darryl Duncan
Past Brothers	Corbett Park	Ross Strudwick	Trevor Bailey
Redcliffe	Dolphin Oval	Darryl Van de Velde	Bryan Niebling → Steve Bleakley
Seagulls-Diehards	Neumann Oval	Peter McWhirter	Steve Hegarty → Mark Hohn
Southern Suburbs	Davies Park	Graeme Atherton	Gary French
Western Suburbs	Purtell Park	Peter Foreman	Kevin Langer → Darren Gilbert
Wynnum-Manly	Kougari Oval	Wally Lewis	Wally Lewis

Pre-Season

The 1987 Woolies pre-season competition took place over 5 rounds, from February 22 to March 22. Four competition points were available in each match, with one point going to the side that scored the most points in each half and two points to the winning side. Winfield Cup competition points were also available for teams that won games in rounds 2 through 5 of the pre-season. The pre-season final was held on March 29, between Brothers and Norths, both teams that had won all of their pre-season matches. The Brethren were without captain Trevor Bailey, who would also miss the Winfield State League and two rounds of the regular season. Second-row forward Gary Smith captained Brothers in Bailey's absence, the side winning 18-4 after taking the lead in the 33rd minute.

Results

Team	1	2	3	4	5	F1	F2
Eastern Suburbs Tigers	X	BRO -34	SOU -12	RED -28	WST +2
Ipswich Jets	BRO -2	X	WST +22	VAL +6	NOR -6	BRO -10
Northern Suburbs Devils	X	SOU +10	RED +12	WST +14	IPW +6	WYN +3	BRO -14
Past Brothers	IPW +2	EST +34	WYN +4	X	VAL +14	IPW +10	NOR +14
Redcliffe Dolphins	X	WST +3	NOR -12	EST +28	WYN -24
Seagulls-Diehards	SOU +14	WYN -10	X	IPW -6	BRO -14
Southern Suburbs Magpies	VAL -14	NOR -10	EST +12	WYN -14	X
Western Suburbs Panthers	X	RED -3	IPW -22	NOR -14	EST -2
Wynnum-Manly Seagulls	X	VAL +10	BRO -4	SOU +14	RED +24	NOR -3
Team	1	2	3	4	5	F1	F2

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Northern Suburbs	4	4	0	0	1	108	66	+42	16.5
2	Past Brothers (P)	4	4	0	0	1	106	52	+54	16
3	Wynnum-Manly	4	3	0	1	1	88	44	+44	13
4	Ipswich	4	2	0	2	1	70	50	+20	10.5
5	Redcliffe	4	2	0	2	1	78	83	-5	10
6	Seagulls-Diehards	4	1	0	3	1	66	82	-16	8.5
7	Eastern Suburbs	4	1	0	3	1	46	118	-72	6.5
8	Southern Suburbs	4	1	0	3	1	70	96	-26	5.5
9	Western Suburbs	4	0	0	4	1	33	74	-41	3.5

Ladder

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Past Brothers (P)	16	13	0	3	2	442	227	+215	30
2	Northern Suburbs	16	12	1	3	2	340	249	+91	29
3	Redcliffe	16	11	0	5	2	404	262	+142	26
4	Wynnum-Manly	16	11	0	5	2	354	226	+128	26
5	Southern Suburbs	16	8	1	7	2	311	310	+1	21
6	Ipswich	16	8	0	8	2	325	315	+10	20
7	Seagulls-Diehards	16	6	0	10	2	373	304	+69	16
8	Western Suburbs	16	1	0	15	2	164	462	-298	6
9	Eastern Suburbs	16	1	0	15	2	185	543	-358	6

Source:^[2]

Woolies Trophy

The 1987 Woolies Trophy match was held on August 2, as part of round 15 of the regular season. The Trophy was contested by Northern Suburbs and Wynnum-Manly, the teams that led the competition after the end of round 9.

Match details

1987 Woolies Trophy

2 August 1987

Northern Suburbs	22 – 12	Wynnum-Manly Seagulls
Tries: 3 C Grauf  2' M Booth  12' G Dowling  64' Goals: 5 G Harvey  2', 27', 43', 47', 64'	1st: 12 – 12 2nd: 10 – 0	Tries: 1 C Scott  15' Goals: 4 B Samuelson  8', 15', 24', 33'

Lang Park, Brisbane Referee: Eddie Ward

Finals

Home	Score	Away	Match Information
			Date and Time	Venue	Referee	Crowd
Semi-finals
Redcliffe	30-7	Wynnum-Manly	30 August 1987	Lang Park	Eddie Ward	9,800
Past Brothers	25-16	Northern Suburbs	6 September 1987	Lang Park	Ian Irwin	7,500
Preliminary Final
Redcliffe	24-16	Northern Suburbs	13 September 1987	Lang Park	Eddie Ward	7,612
Grand Final
Past Brothers	26-8	Redcliffe	20 September 1987	Lang Park	Eddie Ward	25,000

Grand Final

1987 BRL Grand Final

20 September 1987

Past Brothers	26 – 8	Redcliffe
Tries: 5 T Bailey  13' J Kilroy  31' M Coyne  39' T Rea  47' C Mohr  74' Goals: 3/5 T Rea  39', 47', 74'	1st: 14 – 0 2nd: 12 – 8	Tries: 1 J Sandy  71' Goals: 2/3 B Keogh  43', 71' (2/2) T Benson (0/1)

Lang Park, Brisbane Attendance: 25,000 Referee: Eddie Ward

^[3][4][5]

Winfield State League

The 1987 Winfield State League was the inaugural season of the Queensland Rugby League's statewide competition. A total of 14 teams competed in the season, 8 of which were BRL Premiership clubs. The remaining six were regional teams from across the state, hence the State League name. Wynnum Manly, Redcliffe, Brisbane Brothers and Toowoomba were the semi-finalists. Toowoomba were only the second non-Brisbane side to make the state league finals, but lost by 22 points to Wynnum-Manly in the semi-finals. The Seagulls faced Redcliffe in the State League Final for the second year in a row, winning 36-14.

References