worked as a bartender at the Broncos Leagues Club to make ends meet. Later that year, he signed a $10,000 playing contract with the Broncos. Playing career Lockyer made his professional first-grade debut with the Brisbane Broncos from the bench as an eighteen-year-old in a 60-14 thrashing of the Parramatta Eels in Round 13 of the 1995 ARL season. In this game he threw a try assist to Steve Renouf, a combination which would blossom over the next few seasons. He went on to be named the 1995 Brisbane Broncos season's rookie of the year, playing 11 games at centre, five-eighth and off the bench, scoring 3 tries and kicking 4 goals in a game where primary goal kicker Julian O'Neill was injured. He also kicked the first field goal of his career to clinch a 27-20 win over the Gold Coast Seagulls in Round 21. Lockyer played most of the 1996 ARL season from the interchange bench, but also played fullback, wing, centre and five-eighth, finishing with 20 games played, scoring 7 tries and kicking 13 goals. Unfortunately for the Broncos, they had a rare period of failure, and despite finishing top 4 in both 1995 and 1996, they were unable to win a single finals game across those 2 years. Fullback 1997 Lockyer was moved permanently to the position by coach Wayne Bennett at the beginning of the 1997 Super League season, replacing Australian former international winger Willie Carne, who had played fullback for the Broncos in 1996, with Lockyer also taking over the full-time goal kicking duties from Carne. He first gained representative honours for Queensland that season in the second Super League Tri-series match against New South Wales. Lockyer's try-scoring and goal-kicking ability made him the top point-scorer of the 1997 Brisbane Broncos season, and he played a key role in the Broncos side which finished 1st in the Super League table, while also winning the World Club Challenge, the Final being a 36-12 win over the Hunter Mariners. Lockyer won his first finals match as Brisbane dismissed the Cronulla Sharks 34-2, before rematching the Sharks in the Grand Final where the Broncos won a much closer game 26-8. Lockyer kicked 10 goals from 13 attempts across those 2 matches, bringing his season tally to 8 tries and 70 goals. At the end of the 1997 season Lockyer made his international debut when he was selected