The
Western Suburbs Panthers, often simply referred to as
Wests, are a
rugby leagueRugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
club from
BrisbaneBrisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The Club is the oldest in the QRL and despite absences from the top grade in recent years and several name changes the club continued to operate. In 2010 plans are to return to the clubs spiritual home at Purtell Park, Bardon and revert to the original name
Western Suburbs Panthers.
History
The club's roots trace back to the first game of rugby league played in the state - a game between North Brisbane and Toombul in 1909. By 1914, a club from Toowong had also entered the
Brisbane junior competitionThe Queensland Rugby Football League is the governing body for rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League and selects the members of Queensland State of Origin teams....
, and by 1915 it had merged with North Brisbane senior club, forming the Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club.
After winning their first premiership in 1916, they became the first major club in Queensland to go through the season undefeated in 1920, something they would do again in 1922, winning the first premiership conducted by the newly-formed Brisbane Rugby League. In 1927 one of the club's best known players, Tom Purtell, began 56 year association with the club. Purtell was a hooker for Wests until 1941, and was involved with the club in a management level until 1969, including a 20 year unchallenged stint as President.
Although they won a total of 12 premierships, their most successful period was the early 1990s. Even though the Brisbane Broncos had already had a huge effect on the standard of play and the and popularity of the local club competition, Wests were runners-up in 1991, and Premiership winners in 1992 and 1993, before again being runners up in 1994. They were a founding member of the
Queensland CupThe Queensland Cup is the premier rugby league football competition in the State of Queensland, Australia.It is a statewide competition with the majority of teams based in South East Queensland but also including sides based in Cairns, Mackay and Rockhampton.The competition began in 1996 as a...
in 1996, and were runners-up to
NorthsThe Northern Suburbs Devils, Norths for short, are a rugby league club representing the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The team colours are sky blue, navy blue and gold. They play in the Queensland Wizard Cup, and, through their predecessors, are one of the oldest clubs in...
in 1998. However after the turn of the century Wests were losing more games than they were winning, and following a disastrous year in 2003 when the lost all 22 games of the season, including a club record 78-0 loss to Norths at Bishop Park, the club decided to depart the Qld Cup competition, deciding to instead guarantee their survival by participating in lower grades only, and planning to re-enter the Qld Cup competition at a later date.
In 2005 Wests made the
Mixwell Colts ChallengeThe FOGS Cup is an 11 team competition that is the level below the Queensland Cup. It started in 2001, then known as the Quest Cup and changed its name to the Mixwell Cup in 2003. Finally it became the FOGS Cup in 2006...
grand final, although after leading at half-time they were eventually defeated by Norths. At seasons' end the Broncos, who had had a feeder club arrangement in place with Wests for the past few years, pulled out and linked with the
Aspley DevilsThe Aspley Broncos are a rugby league club in Brisbane, Australia. Aspley competes in the FOGS Cup and FOGS Colts Challenge competitions...
. At the same time Wests merged with
Hills DistrictThe Hills District Panthers played only one year in the Mixwell Cup and Mixwell Colts Challenge, which was 2005. They were formed by the Arana Hills Panthers, a satellite club of the Wests Panthers, and while failed to make the finals of the Mixwell Cup, made the finals of the Mixwell Colts...
to form the Western Districts Panthers for 2006 onwards. In 2008 the Colts team won the Fogs Challenge defeating Aspley 30-16 in the Grand Final, the clubs first premiership as a new entity.
In 2009 the meteoric rise of the club back to the big time continued with a memorable 30-24 win over arch rivals Redcliffe in the Fogs Cup, Grand Final. Played at Stockland Park, Kawana the Panthers proved to tough for the Dolphins overcoming a 24-22 deficit to claim the title. Adam Breen had a memorable day scoring 3 tries, too add to his 20 during the regular season and the leading try scorer title. The win continued the Golden Run of Coach Craig Ingebrigtsen, who last year coached the Fogs Colts grand final winning team.
In 2010 former club great Tony Currie takes over as club president in a bid to return Wests to the glory days in the State League. As part of the restructure the club will be based out of its spiritual home Purtell Park, which is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar upgrade.
Crest
Traditionally Wests are referred to as the "mud and bloods", due to the design of their jersey, however the use of this nickname has become rarer since the introduction of the
PantherA black panther is typically a melanistic color variant of any of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars , in Asia and Africa they are black leopards , and in North America they may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars A black panther is...
logo in 1968. In the early 1980s a rebranding move by the
Queensland Rugby LeagueThe Queensland Rugby Football League is the governing body for rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League and selects the members of Queensland State of Origin teams....
saw all BRL clubs adopt a logo with a stylised Q, similar to the QRL logo used at the time, however by 2002 Wests had reverted to using the older club logo on their jerseys.
Colours
When the Toowong and North Brisbane merged to form Wests in 1915, the club's colours were to be red and blue, a combination of Toowong's blue and black and North Brisbane's red and black. However due to a shortage of blue dye due to World War I, red and black were adopted as the official colours. Wests constitutional design includes 4" (100mm) red and black bands, commencing with black on the shoulders. Sleeves then also commence with the first band being black, with the socks having red tops. During the Second World War, Wests adopted a maroon jersey with a black V, due to clothing shortages at the time.
Home grounds
Wests' first home ground was the Botanical Gardens, but played at Lang Park between 1955 and 1973. In 1974, the club moved wholly to its training premises on Mount Coot-tha, naming their new home
Purtell ParkPurtell Park is a rugby league ground in Bardon, a suburb in Brisbane's west. It was the home ground for the Western Suburbs Panthers, who played in the Queensland Rugby League South East Queensland Division's Mixwell Cup and Mixwell Colts Challenge, and who played in the Queensland Cup until the...
after club stalwart Tom Purtell. Purtell Park had the abnormality of being on a slope, with the southern end being higher, although this is not noticeable on television. Since their merger with Hills District, they have been playing out of the Kev McKell Oval at Arana Hills.
Junior clubs
The Wests senior club, along with particular individuals such as Hugh Kelly, Tom Purtell, and Jim Orr etc., were instrumental in establishing numerous junior clubs in the north-western district of Brisbane. Wests Junior RLFC was the first, when Ithaca Creek state school boys and the Police club boys players merged during the early 1950s. Based at Gilbert Park, Wests juniors were one of the strongest junior rugby league bases in the Brisbane, until the Brisbane Broncos took over the facilities completely for training purposes, and forced them out. Wests juniors then took up tenancy on the number two field at the senior club's Purtell Park facility. Other Wests junior clubs to form have included Wests Arana Hills, Wests Mitchelton, Wests Centenary, Wests Kenmore and Wests Inala - all of whom have enjoyed substantial success on-field, and produced quality players who have gone on to wear the red and black of the Panthers.
Famous players
- Duncan Hall
Duncan Hall was an Australian rugby league footballer of the 1940s and 1950s, singled out as having been amongst the greatest of the 20th century. He played in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership for Fortitude Valley Diehards and represented Queensland and Australia. He has been named amongst...
(great Queensland and Australian Front Row forward of the 1950s, Rugby League Team of the Century member, Rugby League Hall of Fame Member)
- John Sattler
John William Sattler is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1960s and '70s. He was a rugged Prop forward who led his club, South Sydney to four premiership victories between 1967 and 1971 and who played four tests for Australia – three as the national captain...
(legendary South Sydney forward who played two seasons for the Panthers at the end of his career)
- Wayne Stewart (Queensland and Australian winger)
- Barry Muir
Barry Muir is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. An Australian and Queensland representative halfback, he played in twenty-two Tests between 1959 and 1964, as captain on two occasions...
(Queensland and Australian halfback, the first person to call the New South Wales rugby league teamThe New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against arch-rivals, the...
"cockroaches")
- Greg Oliphant
Greg Oliphant is an Australian former rugby league footballer, a state and national representative half back who made one Kangaroo tour.-Biography:...
(Queensland and later Australian halfback)
- Geoff Richardson
Geoffrey Colin Richardson is an Australian former national representative rugby league and rugby union player - a dual-code international. He played union at fly-half and league at five-eighth....
(Queensland and Australian five-eighth and former Wallaby)
- Paul Vautin
Paul Vautin , is an Australian sports television personality and former rugby league footballer and coach. He currently hosts the NRL Footy Show and provides commentary for the Nine Network's coverage of rugby league matches...
(later Queensland and Australian lock/second row, TV presenter)
- John Ribot
John Ribot is an Australian sports administrator and former rugby league footballer of the 1970s and 80s. Once a Queensland State of Origin and Australian international representative winger, Ribot was the 1980 NSWRFL season's top try-scorer...
(Queensland and later Australian winger, founding CEO of Brisbane Broncos, CEO of SuperLeague, Founding Chairman of Melbourne Storm, Queensland Roar CEO, QRL board member)
- Brad Thorn
Bradley Carnegie Thorn is a professional rugby union player. He has in the past represented Australia at rugby league, and currently represents New Zealand in union...
(Broncos, Queensland, Australia and New Zealand All Black)
- Tony Currie
Anthony William Currie commonly known as Tony Currie is an English former footballer who had significant spells for Sheffield United, Leeds United and Queens Park Rangers as well as representing England....
(later Queensland and Australian centre)