Club Focus: the Valleys Diehards
January 23rd 2010 04:51
Club Focus
The Fortitude Valley Diehards
Before the national expansion of the NSWRL in 1988, when the Brisbane Broncos became the dominant Rugby League team in Brisbane, the Rugby League landscape was divided into a number of small districts and competitions. The two major competitions of course included the NSWRL Premiership, representing the Sydney district, and the Brisbane Rugby League which was the Brisbane equivalent.
With its inaugural season beginning in 1909, the BRL fostered some of the most illustrious teams in Australian Rugby League history, including the Norths Devils, Wynnum-Manly Seagulls and the Easts Tigers. The most dominant of all these sides though, was of course the Fortitude Valley Diehards.
Known simply as Valleys, the Diehards are by far the most successful and dominant team to play in the Brisbane Premiership. In their 86 seasons from 1909 to 1995, the Diehards won 24 Premierships and were Runners-Up on 10 occasions. They also boasted a number of talented players throughout the years that included Vic Armbruster, Chris Close, Duncan Hall and Wally Lewis.
Playing out of Neumann Oval in Albion, now known as Allan Border Field, Valleys typified the traditional Queensland spirit of never giving up and coming back from the death. This led to them being nicknamed the Diehards due to the ‘diehard spirit’ in tight games.
Their spirit and grit complimented their no frills attitude as well. Visually the Diehards were very basic and had the most simplistic playing strip of any club. Their colours were royal blue with a white collar and a white butcher strip vertically on each side of their shorts. On their jerseys a simple VFC monogram was displayed in white, which became a famous symbol of Valleys.
It was through this VFC monogram, that Valleys identified themselves, and it was not until the late 1980’s when the Queensland Rugby League’s re-branding process forced the club into adopting a logo surrounded by the QRL ‘Q’. The monogram did continue to appear however and was displayed on the shield of the newly adopted Gladiator moniker.
It was this simplistic nature of the club that finally led to its downfall though. Much like Sydney clubs such as Balmain, Wests and South Sydney, the Diehards were never able to adapt to the new era of professionalism. It is not as though they did not try however. In 1988 Valleys formed a joint venture with the Tweed Heads Seagulls and became known as the Seagulls-Diehards. Although despite winning that year’s premiership, the joint-venture broke up at the end of the season and Valleys reverted to their original name.
Financial difficulties continued to plague the club all throughout their existence in the 1990s which led to another merger, this time with the Caboolture Snakes in 1995. Now known as Caboolture Valleys, the merger was not successful and the team finished the season with the wooden spoon. This failure forced the proud club to fold and Valleys were prevented from playing in the inaugural Queensland Cup competition in 1996.
A resurrection of sorts occurred in 2002 when the ruminants of Valleys entered into a partnership with another former BRL team, Brothers. Known as the Brothers-Valleys Two-Blues, the side was accepted into the Queensland Cup season of 2004, but their only premiership points came from a first round draw. Subsequently, the club did not gain acceptance into the 2005 season based on poor finance.
It is a sad reality that Valleys do not compete in today’s Queensland Cup as they really are Brisbane’s equivalent to South Sydney. However, the impact and the legacy that they had in Brisbane will never be forgotten. They truly were one of Australia’s great Rugby League Clubs.
| 63 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
