Rugby league training for Brisbane players
Brisbane is rugby league country, and five Cup clubs share it. Which one you trial for depends on which catchment your junior club sits in — and the physical gap between players who make those squads and players who do not is built over summer.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.
Brisbane’s rugby league pathway runs through five Queensland Cup clubs, each with its own junior catchment: the Norths Devils and Redcliffe Dolphins in the north and Moreton Bay, the Souths Logan Magpies in the south and Logan, and the Brisbane Tigers and Wynnum Manly Seagulls in the east and bayside. Their Cyril Connell Cup (under-17) and Mal Meninga Cup (under-19) teams are the junior representative step.
Below the Cup, BRL Premier A Grade is Brisbane’s top community competition.
Find your part of Brisbane
Each region is one or two Cup club catchments, with the junior clubs the clubs themselves list. Find your junior club and you have found your pathway.
North Brisbane & Moreton Bay
Norths Devils and Redcliffe Dolphins — Aspley and Valleys to Pine Rivers and the Peninsula.
See the regionSouth Brisbane & Logan
Souths Logan Magpies — all of Logan, south-west Brisbane and West End.
See the regionEast Brisbane, bayside & Redlands
Brisbane Tigers and Wynnum Manly Seagulls — Coorparoo to Wynnum, Capalaba and the bay islands.
See the regionWhich club your address belongs to
In Queensland the Cup clubs run the junior representative teams, drawing on their affiliated junior clubs.
- Norths Devils
- North Brisbane — Aspley, Banyo, Brothers, Norths, Pine Central, Samford, Valleys, West Arana Hills, West Mitchelton and Wests juniors.
- Redcliffe Dolphins
- Moreton Bay.
- Souths Logan Magpies
- All of Logan, south-west Brisbane and West End.
- Brisbane Tigers
- The eastern suburbs, from Coorparoo. Juniors play as Eastern Suburbs Tigers.
- Wynnum Manly Seagulls
- The bayside east and Redlands.
Catchments follow the junior club you play for. If your club sits near a boundary, the Cup club or your junior club can confirm which program you trial for.
The competitions
- Queensland Cup (Hostplus Cup)
- Brisbane clubs: Brisbane Tigers, Norths Devils, Souths Logan Magpies, Wynnum Manly Seagulls and Redcliffe Dolphins, with the Ipswich Jets and Sunshine Coast Falcons nearby.
- Mal Meninga Cup and Cyril Connell Cup
- Under-19 and under-17, run by the Cup clubs.
- BRL Premier A Grade
- Brisbane’s top community competition, below the Queensland Cup, run through the QRL’s South East Queensland division.
- Junior Rugby League Brisbane
- Club junior football, March to September.
Set it up for Brisbane
Four things, in the order the app asks them. None of them needs a coach.
Choose rugby league, then your team nights
Onboarding asks “When do you train with your team?” Pick your club nights — Queensland Cup (Hostplus Cup) or wherever you play — and your gym and conditioning are scheduled around them, lighter the day after a big one. Tell it your equipment and any niggles and every exercise is fitted to both.
Match the program to your league’s start
The app treats November to February as rugby league pre-season and March to October as the season. A junior rep player whose games start in February can set their phase to in-season early. The phase lives in Program → Your year.
Know your numbers on day one
Your first testing session is ready immediately: Bronco test, Bench press 1RM, Weighted chin-up 3RM, Back squat 1RM, Standing vertical jump. It is re-run every 8 weeks, and the results re-price your training weights and conditioning paces.
Put your suburb on the board
In Social → Town, set where you train. Your minutes count toward that town’s weekly conditioning and strength top-10 boards — only the town is kept, never your location.
What you start with, by the month you join
Every block is four weeks — three building, one deload — so a free month is one complete block.
The rugby league year in Brisbane
- November – January
- Pre-season, in the heat. Aerobic base, then strength, then repeat-effort work. Test on arrival.
- February – May
- Junior representative season. In 2026 the Mal Meninga Cup finals began on 25–26 April, with the grand final in early May.
- March – August
- Queensland Cup and club seasons, with Cup finals in September. Volume comes down, weights hold.
- September – October
- Finals, then a short break. League gives you almost no off-season.
A pre-season in Brisbane is a humid one
Queensland’s summer combines heat with humidity, and humidity is what stops sweat cooling you. Pre-season running in the middle of a humid day costs far more than it looks on paper. Train early or late, drink before you are thirsty, and use the Sports Medicine Australia heat guidelines — their current version was updated specifically because humid conditions were being misjudged.
Coaching a side in Brisbane?
A club licence is A$8 per player, per month (minimum 5), and every player on it gets full Train Smart membership at no cost to them. You write the block once, it lands in each player’s app, and the console shows who actually did it.
Rugby league in Brisbane: questions
Which Queensland Cup clubs are in Brisbane?
What is BRL A-Grade?
How do I train for rugby league in Brisbane heat?
Where these facts come from
Checked September 2026. Zones, grades and dates change — if something here is out of date, the governing body is right and we are wrong.
Nearby and related
Ipswich
The Ipswich Jets and the Ipswich Rugby League — the western corridor.
OpenGold Coast
Burleigh Bears and Tweed Heads Seagulls, RLGC juniors, and a humid summer pre-season.
OpenThe rugby league pathway
From community level to state league and the draft — and what gets tested along the way.
OpenTurn up to round one already fit
Pick rugby league, tell it your team nights, and your first block and testing session are ready before you leave the car park.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.