Who would be the coach? Where would the players come from?

What name would the club take? And who would be the chief executive?

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

Part 6: Brothers close an era

New South Welshmen and former internationals Bob McCarthy and Steve Mortimer were mentioned as possible coaches, with McCarthy endearing himself to Queenslanders by coaching Brisbane Souths, as well as the Brisbane representative side.

McCarthy was favoured by Maranta consortium director Gary Balkin, a Brisbane Souths stalwart, while fellow director Paul “Porky” Morgan had a soft spot for Brisbane Easts’ former Test hooker John Lang.

The directors flew to Sydney to consult “super coach” Jack Gibson, who was in charge of Cronulla at the time.

He did not hesitate to recommend Wayne Bennett, a former Toowoomba Clydesdales teammate of Morgan’s, and coach of the Queensland Origin side.

Inaugural Origin skipper Arthur Beetson also was approached for his view, and he gave the same advice.

There was just one problem – Bennett had signed a four-year deal with Canberra, where he was assistant to Don Furner, with the promise of inheriting the top job in 1988.

Bennett met the four directors after Origin I in Brisbane and agreed, in principle, to coach the side.

Then he backtracked, but the new Brisbane club would not take no for an answer.

Morgan flew to Canberra and got his man.

“Porky turned up on my doorstep with a port (suitcase) in his hand,” Bennett recalled.

“He said ‘you keep rejecting my offers to coach the Broncos, so I’m staying here until you say yes’.”

Bennett went for a run to clear his head and make a decision, then agreed, but only after Morgan doubled the consortium’s original offer.

“You’ve no idea what they’re paying coaches these days,” Morgan told his fellow directors.

Bennett, who had a handshake agreement at the Broncos for much of his coaching career, described Morgan as “one of the great characters” of Queensland business and sporting life.

“He loved sport. He loved life, but most of all he loved people,” Bennett said after Morgan died suddenly on January 26, 2001, aged just 54. “He never did anything second rate.”

After first insisting Bennett honour his contract, the Raiders let him go for a reported $100,000 – a substantial amount at a time when head coaches were getting about $60,000 a year.

Bennett had no beef with the Raiders and remained at the club until the end of the season, when they appeared in their first grand final, six years after entering the competition.

They were beaten 18-8 by hot favourites Manly. Penrith coach Tim Sheens was signed as Bennett’s replacement at Canberra, and was at the helm when the club won its first premiership in 1989.

Former Test winger John Ribot was hired as the Broncos’ first chief executive, while journalist Kev Keliher, a former Brothers official, took on the role as media manager.

When Ribot made his first-grade debut for Wests in the Brisbane competition in 1974, skipper John Sattler, a former Test prop, tipped a big future for a man he described as having an old head on young shoulders.

After playing for Wests and Valleys, Ribot moved to Sydney, where he played for Newtown, Wests and Manly, before returning to Brisbane to finish his playing career at Redcliffe.

He played 11 matches for Queensland, three for NSW and nine Tests for Australia.

In 1985, his farewell season, he was one of the heroes of Australia’s gripping 2-1 series win over New Zealand.

At the end of the 1985 season, he attended the Brisbane grand final between the Bennett-coached Souths and Des Morris-coached Wynnum-Manly.

As a guest columnist for The Courier-Mail, Ribot said fans “could not have hoped for more” as a spectacle.

He started work with the QRL soon after, as state development officer.

It was who earmarked Ribot as CEO, after hearing him speak at a sportsman’s lunch early in 1987.

“I phoned Porky (Morgan) and said ‘we’ve got our man’,” Balkin recalled 20 years later.

“We met with John, offered him more than he was getting at the QRL, but he held out for a lot more. He got it, and we got him.

“John proved himself immediately. He had natural talent and charisma.”

What about a name, and what colours would the team wear? The City of Brisbane’s official colours were blue and gold, but the Brisbane representative side wore white with red epaulettes.

Advertising guru John Singleton reminded the directors that blue would not be tolerated by Queensland supporters, who had been booing the colour for 80 years, whenever the NSW side took the field. So, whatever the design, maroon had to be prominent, and blue was out.

There is some debate about who came up with the name “Brisbane Broncos”.

Maranta was a Denver Broncos fan, and he certainly believed such alliteration was, at the very least, catchy.

He set up a “sister club” relationship with the NFL side, so the decision was his, and there is no suggestion he would have gone in another direction.

But it was broadcaster John McCoy, another Denver fan, who first publicly floated Broncos as the name.

“I went to Chinatown for lunch with Rugby League Week Queensland editor Tony Durkin and we were discussing a name for the proposed new club,” McCoy recalls.

“At that stage, a licence hadn’t been granted. I mentioned that there were no clubs in the Sydney competition with a horse as an emblem, so ‘Durko’ said, ‘why don’t you write a yarn?’, which I did.

“We featured GD (Greg Dowling) in a possible jersey and threw up Bob McCarthy’s name as coach. That’s the first time the name Broncos was mentioned. The Maranta Consortium had not been formed.

“When they got the licence, they discussed names, such as the Kookaburras and the Expos.

“When the club was launched on (Balkin’s paddlewheeler) Kookaburra Queen, (lord mayor) Sallyanne Atkinson announced the Broncos as the name. I should have copyrighted it.”

Once the Maranta Consortium announced Bennett as coach, Australian skipper Wally Lewis and Test centre Gene Miles became their first marquee player signings, on three-year deals.

Lewis had hinted at retirement if a Brisbane side was not given the green light.

The Maranta Consortium had no hard feelings towards Lewis and Miles, even though they had been aligned with the Norwood/McKay consortium.

Test hooker Greg Conescu put pen to paper soon after, and in the following weeks, fellow internationals Colin Scott, Bryan Niebling and Greg Dowling followed, although it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

Miles delayed signing, much to the chagrin of Morgan, because he had promised the Bob McCarthy-coached Gold Coast Giants he would give them a chance to make a final offer.

After a “long lunch”, Morgan threatened to throw Miles out of his 30th floor office window if he didn’t sign.

Dowling had quit Wynnum at the end of 1986 because of the club’s financial dramas, and played with Norths in ’87.

Midway through that season he employed a manager to look after his affairs, with a number of Sydney clubs chasing him.

Queensland’s new Origin halfback Allan Langer had not received any offers from Sydney clubs, but was foremost in the thoughts of the Maranta Consortium.

Ribot was outraged that Ipswich Jets were demanding a $30,000 fee for the release of Langer from the remaining year of his contract.

The funny thing was, Langer had knocked back an offer from Bennett to play at Brisbane Souths in 1985.

In the end, the Broncos paid $20,000 to Ipswich.

Ribot withdrew offers to Redcliffe pair James Sandy and Robin Thorne when they failed to respond to a deadline he had set.

“Rugby league is at the crossroads,” Ribot said, as he stepped up his recruiting drive.

“Its future in this state rests on the success of the Brisbane team, from year one.”