Women’s State of Origin: Broncos make up half of Qld team

The NRLW Broncos’ 10-strong contingent in the Maroons’ extended squad is a throwback to the days when the club dominated the men’s team.

The Brisbane Broncos contingent in the women’s State of Origin Maroons squad

Brisbane’s “love eight” relationship with State of Origin is hitting new heights.

The Broncos NRLW squad will contribute an incredible eight players to the Queensland team – and two more to the extended squad – when the women’s State of Origin series kicks off a magical four-day feast of football in Brisbane on Thursday night.

The 10-strong contingent is a throwback to the days when the Broncos dominated the Queensland men’s team in the era of Allan Langer, the Walters brothers and players such as Steve Renouf, Willie Carne and Michael Hancock.

Led by captain Ali Brigginshaw, this year’s contingent of Broncos women’s players are seeking to write their own place in history and inspire the stars of tomorrow.

“Having 10 Broncos players in the team this year does show similar aspects to that of the former men’s Maroons’ teams when they were once filled with Broncos players,” she said.

“It will definitely will give us that extra boost into the NRLW season because we’ve already started an intense workload together and are already playing professional games with one another.

“It’s great to have that extra cohesion because we obviously play the majority of our football together, however, I feel that the Maroons as an entirety are extremely well-bonded and perform as a strong team, no matter which club each player has come from.”

Brisbane Broncos Maroons players from 1991

Brisbane head of NRLW Paul Dyer said it was exciting to see so many Broncos in the Queensland team, a legacy of the club’s recruitment strategy going back as far as the days of Wayne Bennett and those legendary men’s teams of yesteryear.

“We’re a proud Queensland club, and one of the first things we wanted to do when we set up the NRLW program was to have a really strong Queensland presence on the roster,” he said.

“This is a great reward for all their hard work and to have 10 in the squad makes us extremely proud.”

The women’s series opener is on track for a record crowd of more than 25,000, delivering a mouth-watering opening stanza for this year’s Magic Round which officially sold out on Wednesday afternoon.

Game one of last year’s women’s series was expected to set a huge record crowd, but was marred by wet weather.

There is no such risk this time around, with clear skies forecast for a game where the record attendance of 25,782 set in Newcastle for last year’s Game Two is now under threat.

The weather bureau has forecast occasional showers for Saturday and Sunday of the Magic Round weekend.

The Dolphins take on the Roosters in the second game on Friday night’s double-header, while the Cowboys play the Warriors on Saturday night, with both the Titans (v Bulldogs) and Broncos (v Panthers) in action on Sunday.