In Brisbane, only one thing was certain: Nothing was certain.

Several consortiums had put up their hands for the licence, but local officials were dithering over whether to give the green light for a new club.

Some officials were emboldened by the fact BRL crowds were up on 1986.

But Australian captain Wally Lewis brought sobriety to the debate after the Brisbane representative team was beaten 14-2 by Penrith in a Panasonic Cup (knockout competition) match.

Part 1: Flying south

Part 2: Moment of truth

Part 3: Staying home

Part 4: Verge of big league

Part 5: Birth of the Broncos

Lewis said it was likely any new club would need 10 to 12 “Sydney” recruits to provide the necessary experience and mental toughness.

“It might take us half the year to get accustomed to Sydney football,” he warned.

There had been a deadlock in the vote at a Queensland Rugby League executive meeting on March 23, with chairman Bill Hunter opting not to use his casting vote, the second occasion on which he had sat on the fence over fielding a side in the Sydney competition, despite his public support for the idea.

By this time, a consortium boasting former internationals Peter Gallagher, John Sattler and Bob Hagan was effectively out of the picture, and other contenders had dipped their toes in the water, without going any further.

That left two contenders – the Maranta Consortium (former Brisbane first graders Barry Maranta, Paul “Porky” Morgan, Gary Balkin and Steve Williams) and the favoured Alister Norwood-Jim McKay bid, with former QRL chairman Ron McAuliffe as a director.

On April 7 The Courier-Mail declared the Norwood-McKay Consortium seemed “almost assured” of the licence, but the Maranta Group was beavering away behind the scenes.

Maranta spoke to Brisbane club officials and found there was widespread disenchantment with McAuliffe.

Balkin, a long-standing patron and benefactor of Souths Magpies, arranged a “secret” meeting (the media had been tipped off) of Brisbane officials at his Bonaparte’s Hotel in Fortitude Valley, and outlined the Maranta Group’s plans.

The next day the Brisbane Division voted 8-0 to put the Maranta-backed team in the Sydney competition, largely as a result of being offered a stake in the new “super club”.

“We did not want to have a bar of the West Australian consortium,” said Norths delegate Kevin Brasch, who would become Brisbane Division president two years later.

“Brisbane clubs were loath to give their backing to a national competition, because they knew it would eliminate the BRL. There was even talk of ‘north of the river’ and ‘south of the river’ teams.”

On April 14, the QRL voted 7-3 in favour of the Maranta Consortium, with the NSWRL rubberstamping the decision despite threats of legal action from the Norwood-McKay Group.

Maranta said the deep connections his consortium had with grassroots football across Queensland got them across the line against a consortium with strong links to Western Australia and Aussie rules.

“We won it by default,” he said, somewhat modestly, given his intellectual input.

The Broncos agreed to give the QRL $500,000 as a start-up and signed a contract, which the QRL drafted, agreeing to give the QRL 30 per cent of any profits, as well as allowing them two seats on the Broncos board – one from the city and one from the country.

The Broncos agreed to underwrite the 1987 sponsorships of all clubs, plus a $10,000 annual payment to each body.

Ultimately that draft agreement would be terminated following alleged ugly personal attacks against the Maranta Consortium.

In an extract from his unfinished memoirs, Balkin wrote that a member of the QRL had said something defamatory, and as a result Maranta had referred the matter to the consortium’s lawyers.

“In the end, the agreement clauses were torn up (in 1990), without court action, and we were left, as four directors only, to bear prospective losses, and eventually hope for a profitable season,” Balkin wrote.

Meanwhile, the once rich and powerful Past Brothers club had applied for a loan to cover losses from its Blue Ribbon Art Union.

To this day, there are Brothers people who believe the club could have entered the NSWRL in its own right, except for the gross financial mismanagement that ultimately brought the club to its knees.

Despite widespread rumours to the contrary, Brothers Football Club officials continued to deny reports of a $3 million debt, and publicly remained confident the leagues club would be able to service interest payments on existing loans.

Alarmingly, leagues club director Maurie Lyons said there were “no bums on seats” at the licensed premises at suburban Grange.

Brothers skipper Trevor Bailey admitted the players were worried they would not be paid.

It was later revealed the desperate players had backed themselves with an SP bookmaker who was a regular at the leagues club.

“The players have the incentive of trying for big contracts with the Brisbane (Broncos) side,” Bailey said, trying to put an optimistic spin on things.

One June 30, it was revealed Brothers had been placed in the hands of receiver-manager Des Knight.

The Brisbane Division ruled out acting as guarantors for a bank loan, as they had done for Wynnum-Manly the previous year.

“Because of the magnitude of this (Brothers’ situation), it would not be feasible,” said Brisbane chairman Tom Drysdale, a former Brisbane Easts premiership winning forward, who had been financial manager on the 1982 Kangaroo tour of Britain and France.