The Brisbane Rugby League was a rugby league football competition in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first held in 1922 and for every year until 1997. The competition was reinstated in 2001, known as the FOGS premiership under the Queensland Cup. The competition consists of Brisbane's top six rugby league clubs. Each participating team is a feeder club for the Queensland Cup. Prior to 1922, the competition was conducted under the auspices of the Queensland Rugby League. Until the 1980s it was the premier sporting competition in Brisbane, attracting large crowds and broad media coverage. The Brisbane Rugby League however, had been in slow decline for some 15 years as large numbers of its players left to compete in the more lucrative Sydney Rugby League, and began to lose popular interest with the creation of the Brisbane Broncos in 1988. Also in 1988, the Sydney Rugby League de facto superseded the Brisbane Rugby League by going national and including the Broncos and Giants clubs. However, the BRL maintained legal top-flight status until the advent of the national Australian Rugby League premiership in 1995, which superseded both it and the Sydney Rugby League premiership. The Brisbane Rugby League premiership then became a second-tier competition until it ceased and was fully replaced at this level by the Queensland Cup before the 1998 season. The FOGS Cup, a third-tier competition under the NRL and Queensland Cup, changed its name to the Brisbane Rugby League in 2016. History Predecessor: QRFL The Queensland Rugby Football League (QRFL) was formed in 1908 by seven former rugby union players who were dissatisfied with the administration of the Queensland Rugby Union (QRU). The new organisation was attacked by both the local press and the QRU for introducing professionalism, which they claimed would destroy the sport. The "founding fathers" of the QRFL included John Fihelly, an Australian Labor Party Member of Parliament who became Minister for Railways and Deputy Premier. The first official club competition kicked off in Brisbane on 8 May 1909. Norths played against Souths before a handful of spectators at Brisbane Cricket Ground. Matches were played under the auspices of the Queensland Amateur Rugby Football League (later renamed Queensland Rugby League). The foundation clubs were: North Brisbane Fortitude Valley South Brisbane Toombul Note: Queensland Rugby League era statistics are not counted as Brisbane Rugby League statistics. Schism: establishment of the Brisbane Rugby League In 1922 the