Mayor stokes Battle of Brisbane fire

Published 5:00am 22 March 2023

Forget State of Origin and the mate against mate mantra, we have the ‘Battle of Brisbane’ and it’s mayor against mayor – Moreton Bay’s Peter Flannery against Brisbane’s Adrian Schrinner.

The pair is placing a wager on the historic first Dolphins V Broncos game – the so-called Battle of Brisbane – on Friday night (7.05pm kick off).

The loser will be forced to fly their rival’s flag at Council Chambers on the next meeting day.

Mayor Peter Flannery says he's quietly confident Brisbane will be flying the Dolphins’ red, white, and gold flag next week.

“Hopefully I can catch the Lord Mayor for a beer before the game, because I reckon Brisbane is in for a drubbing this weekend and that means he won’t want to be hanging around long after the match,” Mayor Flannery says.

“We don’t need a secret weapon, we’ve got the ultimate silver bullet loaded and ready to fire: Wayne Bennett.

“No one knows the Broncos better than Bennett. In fact, he won them all six of their premierships!

“And Bennett’s got something to prove this weekend since the Broncos won their first six games of their inaugural season when they launched back in 1987 and he’ll want to Dolphins to better that.”

Mayor Flannery says he can’t wait to see the Dolphins’ flag flying from city hall in Brisbane’s CBD.

“The Dolphins are in blistering form having won all three of their matches and on three different fields - one at home here at Kayo Stadium in Redcliffe, one away in Newcastle and one at Suncorp itself against the Roosters,” he says.

“And they’ll be running on to Suncorp this Friday after their biggest win yet, beating the Newcastle Knights last Friday by a whopping 16 points (36 to 20).

“Everyone in Moreton Bay is gripped by Phin-fever, the team has really united our community and we’re all cheering the boys on.

“In fact, the Dolphins have seen a 25 per cent increase in membership and signed around 10,000 members from the Broncos’ backyard in inner-city Brisbane. That shows the community pride for our team here and an indication of the economic benefit our NRL club will start to bring into Australia’s third largest council.

“I can’t wait, Dolphins fans have waited 76 years to see their club in the NRL and we’ve been looking forward to this moment against Brisbane for just as long.”